In regions with hot climate, most office buildings tend to use mechanical cooling for indoor thermal comfort, which results in high energy consumption throughout the year. In this article, we highlight a case study in an office building in Shenzhen, which is located in the Hot Summer and Warm Winter Zone of China. The building's most distinctive feature is that it makes sufficient use of semi-outdoor spaces, which plays an important role to achieve occupants' comfort, meanwhile contribute to saving energy. Field studies were conducted on an open terrace and in an auditorium with openable walls. Air temperature on the open terrace varied between 28.8℃ and 30.6℃ during working hours on a summer day. Most occupants felt comfortable, although their averaged thermal sensation vote tended to be higher than neutral condition. In the auditorium when it was occupied on an autumn day, air temperature ranged from 26.1℃ to 27.4℃. The averaged thermal sensation vote values in the three sitting areas were −0.5, 0.3, −0.2 respectively, while no less than 70% of people felt thermally comfortable. In both spaces, the sensible airflow had positively impacted on occupants' comfort. The case study has proven the effectiveness of the strategy of using semi-outdoor spaces and could be a grounded example for new building designs in hot regions in China.

People spend most of their time indoors. However, indoor temperature and individual thermal exposure are generally not considered in epidemiological studies of temperature and health. Based on the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) RP-884 Database, the ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II and the Chinese Thermal Comfort Database, this study first explored the relationship between outdoor temperature, indoor temperature and thermal sensation from a global perspective. Moreover, the potential influence of spatiotemporal heterogeneity on health studies was explored. A breakpoint was found at approximately 11.5 °C in the segmented regression of indoor and outdoor temperature, and the slope of the curve was greater when outdoor temperature was above the breakpoint (n = 67,896). Based on multi-group propensity score matching (PSM) and generalizedadditivemodels (GAM), spatiotemporal heterogeneity was found in the relationship between indoor and outdoor temperatures after adjusting for building type and year. Furthermore, the relationship between indoor temperature and thermal sensation was influenced by the outdoor temperature. This study highlights the importance of considering indoor temperature or individual thermal exposure in temperature-related health studies.

Localized heating systems are an effective approach to improve thermal comfort while reducing energy consumption in a cold indoor environment. Furthermore, localized heating devices have found widespread application in the hot-summer and cold-winter zones of China. This study investigates the heating characteristics of the local heating device in a low-temperature environment, as well as its effects on subjective perception and physiological responses, and develops a personalized control system for the device based on the experimental findings. We conducted experimental tests and questionnaires in a test room with air temperature set at 12 °C and 14 °C and a relative humidity of 55%. A total of six experimental conditions were designed using five types of heating equipment (heating wrist straps, heating insoles, heating leg straps, warm air blower, electric radiant heater), each employing different heat transfer methods. The results demonstrate that the head, hands, legs, and feet are susceptible to feeling cold in a low-temperature environment, and the use of a warm air blower and electric radiant heater can significantly enhance the thermal sensation of these parts, improve thermal acceptability, and raise local skin temperature. The electrocardiogram data indicate that heart rate variability can be utilized to assess thermal sensation in a cold environment with localized heating. Additionally, the relationship between thermal response and skin temperature was investigated, leading to the development of a control strategy for the local heating device in a low-temperature conditions.