"The Adaptive Model of Thermal Comfort: Macquarie University's ASHRAE RP-884 Project" has moved
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The database used in the RP884 Project involved a long process of data acquisition, standardization and assimilation. The schematic below describes the process. First, all the major field researchers in thermal comfort were approached and the majority responded enthusiastically. They supplied raw data in a variety of formats, which had to be converted into Microsoft EXCEL V.5 format. Raw data were then cleaned, recoded and renamed to conform to the ASHRAE RP-884 codebook. If they weren't supplied with the original raw data, daily meteorological observations were appended to each row of observations in the data file. WinComf was used to calculate all the thermal and comfort indices for both indoor and outdoor physical measurements. Then the data files were broken down according to season (summer and winter) and building type (HVAC, natural ventilation, and mixed mode). This is the level of data file made available to the research community via the RP-884 data downloader.
For the purposes of developing adaptive models within RP-884, the datafiles just described were further disaggregated down to the level of individual buildings. There were 160 buildings at this level of analysis within the database. Statistical summaries of key variables within each of the 160 buildings were prepared and incorporated into the RP-884 meta-file. More complex statistical products were also derived, such as regression models for thermal sensations and thermal neutralities within each building, probit models for thermal preferences within each building etc. Unfortunately some of the sample sizes within individual buildings were too small to enable such statistical modelling to achieve significance, so the number of observations within the meta-file did not reach the maximum of 160 across all variables. Nevertheless, the meta-file contains a reasonable quantity, quality and diversity of data for the adaptive modelling phase of the ASHRAE RP-884 project.
Comments to author: rdedear@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au
All contents copyright (C) 1996, Macquarie University.
All rights reserved.
Revised: 9 December 1996
URL http://atmos.es.mq.edu.au/~rdedear/ashrae_rp884_evolution.html
