What kind of adaptive index is suitable for use in Brazil, being able to reflect the condition of acclimatization of the population in its results? This work has as objective the identification of an adaptive thermal comfort index adjusted to different existing climatic conditions in Brazil that can be used at the initial stages of the building project. The methodology adopted in this work is the comparison among four different adaptive indices and those ones validated by regional Brazilian studies in different climatic regions. Moreover, the four adaptive models were used as project tools when designing solar devices in different Brazilian cities. The performance of the devices was evaluated by means of computational simulation. The result was the selection of an index and range of comfort better sensitive to the different Brazilian climatic conditions. We found out that these indices are important tools in bioclimatic design, but its use in assessing the environmental comfort of the users has limitations.
Adaptive indices; Comparative assessment; Building project applications