Adaptive Thermal Comfort in Educational Buildings for Energy Efficiency: A Comparative and Regression Analysis of Global Literature Review Data

ABSTRACT

Thermal comfort in educational buildings extends beyond maintaining indoor temperature, as it affects students' well‐being and energy performance of school environments. Although thermal comfort has been widely reviewed, educational buildings remain underrepresented with limited comparative evidence across school levels and age groups. Most existing reviews rely on descriptive or comparative methods, with few regression‐based approaches providing quantitative insights. This study addresses these gaps by synthesizing field study data from educational buildings. Results show that in naturally ventilated educational buildings indoor temperature strongly depends on outdoor conditions with approximate slopes of 0.70 for secondary, and about 0.50 for both university and primary levels, whereas mechanically conditioned buildings remain thermally stable. Thermal sensation votes show a consistent positive relationship with indoor temperature across all educational levels, although thermal sensitivity varies, with younger students displaying greater variability. The comfort‐indoor temperature relationship is strongly influenced by operation mode as mechanically conditioned primary and secondary schools show more consistent comfort responses than naturally ventilated ones. Adaptive comfort equations are developed for each educational level and operation mode. Overall, the findings indicate that integrating adaptive comfort strategies into educational building design and control can enhance energy efficiency while maintaining acceptable indoor thermal conditions for students.