The Rev Michael Humphreys, who has died aged 89, led a dual life as a Baptist preacher and a pioneering expert in thermal comfort in buildings. His research transformed how we understand and design comfortable, energy-efficient buildings.
Early Career and Research
In the mid-1960s, Humphreys joined the scientific civil service at the Building Research Station in Garston, Hertfordshire. Working with colleague Charles Webb, he analysed field data from Singapore, India, Iraq and the UK, revealing that people felt comfortable in widely varying room temperatures—from the high teens in Britain to the mid-30s in Baghdad.
Fergus Nicol joined the team in 1966, and together they developed adaptive thermal comfort research. Their work emphasised how customs, behaviours and attitudes in different climates affect comfort in buildings. This contrasted sharply with the narrow temperature ranges mandated by air-conditioning industry standards, which were based on limited laboratory studies.
In 1972, Humphreys and Nicol presented their groundbreaking adaptive comfort theory at an international conference. Today, it underpins global standards for building comfort.
Ministry and Return to Research
In 1978, Humphreys answered his calling to the Baptist ministry, moving from Garston to Regent's Park College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1981 and served as pastor in Tring, Hertfordshire, and later as pastor-secretary for the Hertfordshire Baptist Association in Dunstable.
Returning to research in 1992 with the Oxford Thermal Comfort Unit at Oxford Brookes University, he found little progress in adaptive comfort. National and international standards were still dominated by narrow engineering zones, leading to excessive energy use and emissions from buildings.
Released by the church for two days a week, over the next 30 years he contributed to numerous field studies, research papers, books and the Windsor conference series on thermal comfort from 1994 onwards.
Legacy and Personal Life
Humphreys' kindness, empathy and intelligence helped build a worldwide network of researchers, architects and engineers, enabling the development of safe, comfortable, lower-energy buildings vital in a warming climate.
Born in London, the youngest of three children of Helen (nee Paterson), a secretary, and Raymond, a chemist, he spent much of his childhood in Kent and Lancashire. He studied physics at Hatfield College, Durham, where he met and married Mary Wood in 1959. After a diploma in education at Durham, he taught physics at Hartlebury grammar school for seven years.
In 1996, he and Mary moved to Knighton, Powys, Wales, where he continued research until 2020 while preaching in Welsh chapels. He wrote that he hoped his example would lead others to follow their deepest insights and have the determination to “swim against the current”, for which perseverance is essential.
Mary died in 2023. Michael is survived by their four daughters, Grace, Catherine, Ruth and Hilary, 12 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, and his brother, Jonathan.
