Comparison of Actual Thermal Vote with Two Objective Human-Biometeorological Indices Values

Abstract

In July 2010, a field study on the biometeorological conditions and human thermal comfort was carried out in Athens. The experiment was conducted during six different days in three different sites, Syntagma Square, Ermou Street and Flisvos coast. The collected data included measurements of meteorological parameters and subjective assessments of thermal sensation from morning to evening for each site. A mobile meteorological station collected data of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, total solar radiation, surface ground temperature and globe temperature while a group of five healthy and acclimatized subjects exposed to the environmental conditions completed every 30 min a questionnaire about their thermal sensation at the moment of measurement. Two biometeorological indices, Thermal Sensation (TS) and Heat Load (HL), were calculated in order to compare the indices values with the actual thermal vote of the five subjects. The analysis showed that TS underestimates the thermal sensation of the five subjects when their thermal vote is ‘hot’ or ‘very hot’ while TS overestimates the thermal sensation of the subjects when their thermal vote is ‘neutral’. The HL index overestimates the thermal sensation of the subjects.