Cooling energy demand has increased three-fold in the Middle East (ME) over the last 30-years. This is driven by the need to maintain thermal comfort in an extremely hot climate, and supported by rising incomes, falling costs of air-conditioning and growth in the number of buildings. The definition of thermal comfort in these buildings is drawn from “international” standards, which, though empirically derived, have no basis data from this region. Hence, we ask, to what extent do indoor conditions in the ME fall within the standards recommended range of thermal comfort, and when they do, whether they are found to be comfortable by their occupants. We present the first large-scale study of thermal comfort in the ME, consisting of two approaches: (i) a meta-analysis of data from existing studies, (ii) independent field data covering four countries representing 27% of the region's population, 31 air-conditioned buildings of different types, including “green” buildings, and 1,101 subjects. The meta-analysis demonstrates that current thermal comfort standards fail to predict thermal sensation of 94% of occupants. Our own data show that, while indoor conditions are within standards-recommended ranges 58% of the time, only 40% of occupants find these conditions acceptable. We find evidence of overcooling in summers, with 39% occupants expressing cold discomfort. Computer models suggest that this is likely to have increased annual cooling energy demand between 13% and 20%, compared to non-overcooled conditions. These results suggest the necessity of localised thermal comfort standards that mitigate excess cooling energy demand, without compromising occupant thermal comfort.

在过去30年中，中东（ME）的冷却能源需求增长了三倍。这是由于需要在极端炎热的气候中保持热舒适性，并受到收入增加，空调成本下降以及建筑物数量增加的支持。这些建筑物中的热舒适性的定义来自“国际”标准，尽管该标准是凭经验得出的，但没有该地区的基础数据。因此，我们要问，ME中的室内条件在多大程度上落在建议的热舒适性标准范围内？何时这样做，乘员是否感到舒适？我们提出了对ME进行热舒适性的首次大规模研究，该研究包括以下两种方法：（i）对现有研究的数据进行荟萃分析，（ii）覆盖代表该地区人口27％的四个国家，31种不同类型的空调建筑物（包括“绿色”建筑物）和1,101个主题的独立现场数据。荟萃分析表明，当前的热舒适标准无法预测94％的乘员的热感觉。我们自己的数据显示，尽管室内条件在58％的时间内处于标准建议的范围内，但只有40％的居住者认为这些条件可以接受。我们发现夏季有过冷的迹象，有39％的乘客感到寒冷不适。计算机模型表明，与非过冷状态相比，这可能使年度冷却能源需求增加了13％至20％。这些结果表明，必须制定局部的热舒适标准，以减轻过多的冷却能量需求，