Abstract
In Thailand, many government buildings and facilities are adapted to serve as Multipurpose Senior Centers (MSCs). However, most of them have been used without taking into account of thermal comfort of occupants. The present research aimed to develop guidelines for improving suitable indoor environment for the Thai elderly in hot season and analyze energy use of the 3 case-study MSCs. Both field study and climate-controlled chamber study were conducted. The obtained data were analyzed to develop the equation for predicting the thermal sensation, which would be inputted in the scSTREAM program for analysis purposes. The energy use was evaluated using the DOE-2 program. The results suggested that during 8:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., natural ventilation should be used together with orbit fans to produce an actual air velocity of 0.64–0.73 m/s. From 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., air conditioners should set at 26.00–26.50 °C with an actual air velocity of 0.06–0.22 m/s. The results also showed that the developed guidelines could improve the level of thermal comfort from “slightly cool” to “neutral” and reduce energy use in hot season by 16.56% due to the reduction of cooling load and fan operation of air conditioning systems. Moreover, energy consumption in MSCs are also affected by the building parameters. These findings can be applied as guidelines for improving a large number of MSCs in Thailand.
Highlights
Thailand will become a complete aged society in 2021 and a super-aged society in 2031 [1,2]
The results indicate that even though the body surface area (BSA) of the study group are in normal classification, but the body mass index (BMI) values are in overweight classification; which can be implied that the heat dissipation of this group is considered general but the heat production may change due to the body mass, that calculated based on BMI, are higher than standard value
Referring to the demographic information, the BSA values are in normal classification as same as the average of general people overall [44], which was calculated in both men and women, the study group’ s BMI values that are consistent with general Thai elderly in urban area are in overweight classification [45]
Summary
Thailand will become a complete aged society in 2021 and a super-aged society in 2031 [1,2]. The Thai government has encouraged the establishment of Multipurpose Senior Centers (MSCs) with the aim to provide elderly people with a place to do activities together during the daytime. Many of the government’s buildings in Thailand (i.e., office buildings, community health centers, and public health centers) and facilities (e.g., multipurpose room, hall, and meeting room) have been adapted to be MSCs in order to support Thai elderly people. Thailand has continuously supported the physical environment design that accommodates the needs of elderly people, according to the Ministerial Regulations on Specification of the Facility of Building for Disable or Deformed person and Aged Person B.E. 2548 [5]. There are still few studies on thermal comfort of elderly people, which basically affects energy use in buildings and is a key factor that can affect comfort, health, and performance of elderly people [7]. There are at least 879 MSCs [8] that are being used without taking into account of occupants’ thermal comfort
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