In Iraq, the temperature reaches around 0 °C in winter and 50 °C in summer. Aiming at providing
thermal comfort for people, studies have been advocating developing innovative thermally responsive designs
or adopting traditional architecture’s passive design strategies. However, to develop appropriate solutions for
the country, it is critical to determine the thermal comfort limits to define the targeted thermal performance
of buildings. This research worked on defining Iraqis’ thermal comfort limits in residential buildings for two
reasons. First, they are the dominant building type in the country. Second, to inform the design of large
housing developments Iraq is planning to have to satisfy large housing needs. Exploring previous literature in
Iraq or regional countries shows that residential thermal comfort limits for people have not been defined
properly. To achieve this aim, the research conducted thermal comfort survey in four Iraqi cities for a year.
Nearly 4800 thermal comfort votes were recorded by 90 participants. The results show that the lower thermal
comfort Globe temperature in winter is 17 °C and the highest acceptable Globe temperature in summer is 33
°C
