In recent decades, international standards that define energy requirements are based on the notion that thermal comfort is achieved in uniform and steady-state environments, increasingly created within sealed building envelopes that lack any connection to outdoor thermal variability, a necessity for human well-being. These sealed excessively energy consuming environments feed our addiction to air-conditioning and excessive over-cooling.

But, there is a different path that can reduce energy while improving comfort. Recent research suggests that thermal perception and comfort are more than a deterministic heat balance and that positive thermal experiences can be created from more energy-conserving and dynamic fluctuations in temperatures, air flow, radiant, and humidity conditions. This physiological phenomenon is called thermal alliesthesia: the sensory pleasure arising from transient or contrasting thermal experiences.