Energy poverty analyzed considering the adaptive comfort of people living in social housing in the central-south of Chile

•Identification of people living under 14 °C susceptible to cold-related ill-health.•90% of people invest more than 10% of the minimum wage on energy.•Discomfort time is correlated with the number of respiratory illnesses reported by the participants in the surveys.•The most vulnerable group are people who spend more than 35% of their time in discomfort. Energy poverty (EP) occurs when there are no energy services available or not at an affordable price, or when homes are not capable of maintaining minimum thermal comfort conditions. It is associated with a series of adverse consequences for the people's health and with a higher number of deaths in winter in most European countries. The objective of this research was to study whether the thermal comfort levels, the state of the dwellings, the heating systems, the energy expenses, the respiratory illnesses and the medical expenses reported by social housing inhabitants in central-south Chile, were correlated, to determine which variables or combination of variables are more related with EP situations. To define the thermal comfort limits, a recently published adaptive thermal comfort model for low income housing in Chile was used. The results show that a third of those surveyed were not capable of keeping their home comfortable for at least 80% of the time and more than a fifth were incapable of doing so 65% of the time. Only 10% of those who were capable of keeping comfort levels more than 90% of the time, spend less than US$ 40 a month, which represents 10% of the minimum Chilean wage. Reducing the time that temperatures are below the lower comfort limit to 10% can mean a reduction in the number of respiratory illnesses and medical expenses.