The effects of thermal adaption and dynamic demands for thermal comfort of occupants on heating and cooling energy consumption in residential buildings were explored. First, taking Chongqing as a typical city in the hot summer and cold winter zone, a thermal environment database for residences (sample size 2 151) was analyzed, and the S-shaped variation trend of annual comfort temperatures of occupants with outdoor temperatures was revealed. Then, the annual heating and cooling periods and the dynamic temperature settings for residences were determined based on the thermal adaption and dynamic comfort of occupants. Lastly, a typical reference residence was established by using EnergyPlus, with a family number of three and building area of 105 m². According to the design requirements of the JGJ 134—2010 standard, the annual energy saving potential for heating and cooling in residential buildings was analyzed based on the thermal adaption and dynamic demands of occupants. Results show that under annually natural ventilation condition, only 32.2% of thermal environment was distributed in the comfort zone (18-26 ℃). With the traditional heating and cooling temperature design (18-26 ℃), the proportion was increased to 62.87%, and it was further increased by 5.45% under dynamic temperature settings. The annual energy consumptions per area for traditional heating and cooling temperature settings were nearly 8.93 kWh/m² and 17.18 kWh/m². While the dynamic temperature settings significantly reduced the annual energy consumptions for heating and cooling, with the values of 7.78 kWh/m² and 12.96 kWh/m² respectively. The annual energy saving was up to 20.6%, and the energy saving potential for cooling was greater.