Energy saving potential in current and future world built environments based on the adaptive comfort approach

The building sector is among the main energy users in the world, and its consumption patterns are strongly affected by changes in climate conditions. The consumption prediction in future scenarios is one of the greatest challenges. The application of recent techniques, such as adaptive thermal comfort strategies, constitutes an opportunity to reduce energy consumption. This study aims at clarifying their worldwide application potential in two scenarios, current and 2050, linking it to predictions on world population distribution and on the development level of countries. By interpolating 15,897 meteorological database, worldwide maps were made to quantify the applicability of the model and to show that such applicability would largely benefit both developing countries and most world population. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.