Primary Submission Category: Regression Discontinuity
The impact of the long-term indoor thermal environment exposure from China’s Huai River Policy
Authors: Ruiji Sun,
Presenting Author: Ruiji Sun*
This paper explores the adaptive thermal comfort theory, which posits that individuals in hotter climates, or those exposed to warm indoor environments over extended periods, may develop a higher comfort temperature compared to those in colder climates. The adaptive comfort model demonstrates a correlation between outdoor air temperatures and indoor comfort temperatures. However, correlation is not causation. Do outdoor conditions or prolonged exposure to specific indoor temperatures causally affect our comfort levels? This study seeks to address this question by examining the winter heating policy near China’s Qin Mountain and Huai River, a demarcation line between two major climatic zones. In the northern zone, the lowest monthly mean outdoor air temperature falls below 0°C, while in the southern zone, it remains above 0°C. The heating policy enables buildings in the north to access affordable heating systems from centralized plants, typically maintaining indoor temperatures above 15°C. Conversely, buildings in the south, lacking such systems, have indoor temperatures only marginally above the outdoor temperature, near 0°C. We employ a regression discontinuity design based on monthly outdoor air temperatures to estimate the local causal impact of long-term exposure to warm indoor environments on occupants’ comfort temperature at the boundary of Qin Mountain and Huai River. The findings of this study significantly influence building standards and codes.