Experimental evaluation of thermal comfort, SBS symptoms and physiological responses in a radiant ceiling cooling environment under temperature step-changes

Abstract

People usually experience transient thermal environments when entering or leaving a conditioned indoor environment. This has been previously explored but there is little knowledge on the impact of temperature step-changes on thermal comfort in a radiantly cooled environment. We aim to investigate human comfort and underlying physiological mechanism in such conditions. We assessed thermal comfort, sick building syndromes (SBS) symptoms, and physiological responses. Twenty healthy participants were exposed to three temperature step-change conditions with three outdoor air temperatures (29 °C, 33 °C and 36 °C) and one indoor air temperature of 26 °C. Subjective evaluation was collected through a questionnaire. Blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), skin temperature, and electrocardiograph (ECG) were measured. As expected, the overall thermal sensation, comfort, acceptability, preference, and subjective air freshness changed significantly before and after temperature step-changes. Perceived sweat and chest tightness were also affected by the temperature step-changes. Skin temperature, heart rate, time-domain, and nonlinear heart rate variability were affected significantly under temperature step-changes. We observed the overshoot phenomenon with thermal sensation and subjective air freshness under temperature down-step. Thermal sensation had a faster stabilization time than the measured physiological parameters (i.e., skin temperature, heart rate and heart rate variability) under temperature step-changes. The stabilization time before starting a thermal comfort experiment should be at least 30 min. Thermal sensation and skin temperature had an asymmetry effect on temperature step-changes.