Proposed Model of Neutral Temperature Equation for Adaptive Thermal Comfort in Student Flats Units in the Tropics

Thermal comfort of residential rental flats is one of the problems from the ventilation aspect considering that the planning of flats is based on natural ventilation. This article is intended to formulate an alternative to the neutral temperature equation from the equation proposed by Humphrey, Auliciem, de Dear, Nicol, and Roaf with day and night measurement times. Measurements were carried out for three weeks in a student rental apartment building, Hasanuddin University Faculty of Engineering in Bontomarannu, Gowa Regency, which has 5 floors with 104 rooms. Measurements were made with 2,577 respondents during the day, and 2,043 at night. During the day, with an operating temperature between 29.2°C to 31.0°C, the neutral temperature (Tn) obtained from the PMV model is 27.6°C (To). This figure is lower than the actual choice of the TSV scale and the TCV scale, which were 30.3°C (To) and 29.7°C (To), respectively. At night, with an operating temperature between 27.7°C to 29.5°C, the neutral temperature (Tn) obtained from the PMV model is 26.2°C (To). Meanwhile, the neutral temperature obtained from the respondents' actual choices (TSV and TCV) were 28.8°C (To) and 28.2°C (To), respectively. The neutral temperature equations presented in the Humphrey, Auliciem, de Dear, Nicol, and Roaf equations show a lower thermal coefficient than the corrected thermal coefficient and the elaboration of the equations carried out in this study, both from daytime measurements and from night measurements.