Abstract
Owing to movement in the spatial environment and changes in activity levels, students’ thermal perception is time varying in classrooms throughout different periods of the day. However, previous studies have rarely considered the time-varying thermal perception in different periods of the day, which may cause discomfort for students and lead to energy wastage. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate the time-varying thermal perception of students and its influencing factors in different classes of the day. In addition, the differences in students’ adaptive behaviors in different periods were also explored. A total of 578 university students were surveyed using questionnaire surveys during the heating season in Xi’an, China. The following results can be obtained: (1) The thermal sensation vote and thermal preference vote values in the afternoon were significantly higher than those in the morning. At the start of the first class in the morning/afternoon, the thermal sensation of the students had the highest sensitivity to outdoor temperature changes. (2) The students’ thermal perception was greatly affected by the preclass activity state at the start of the first class in the morning/afternoon. However, in other periods, the above phenomenon was not obvious. (3) In the afternoon, the frequency of clothing adjustment was greater than that in the morning, and this behavior would significantly affect the students’ thermal sensation. (4) Compared with the current classroom heating strategy, the heating strategy of dynamically adjusting the indoor set temperature according to the time-varying characteristics of the students can theoretically achieve energy savings of 25.6%.
Highlights
Several studies have indicated that the thermal environment of the classroom has an important impact on the health and productivity of students [1]
University students frequently move between different spaces in teaching buildings to attend different classes, and usually spend less than 2 to 3 hours a day in a classroom [4]; the thermal environment experienced by university students is constantly changing [5]
This study aims to explore the changes in the thermal perception of students in different classes over the course of a day to provide evidence for design strategies so as to improve the indoor thermal environment
Summary
Several studies have indicated that the thermal environment of the classroom has an important impact on the health and productivity of students [1]. It is important to create a comfortable classroom thermal environment. University students frequently move between different spaces in teaching buildings to attend different classes, and usually spend less than 2 to 3 hours a day in a classroom [4]; the thermal environment experienced by university students is constantly changing [5]. The thermal perception (i.e., thermal sensation, thermal preference, and thermal comfort) of students at different periods of the day may have time-varying characteristics. Existing standards, such as ISO 7730 [6], EN15251 [7], and ASHRAE
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