Abstract
The thermal comfort requirements of disabled people in healthcare buildings are an important research topic that concerns a specific population with medical conditions impacted by the indoor environment. This paper experimentally investigated adaptive thermal comfort in buildings belonging to the Association of Parents of Disabled Children, located in the city of Troyes, France, during the winter season. Thermal comfort was evaluated using subjective measurements and objective physical parameters. The thermal sensations of respondents were determined by questionnaires adapted to their disability. Indoor environmental parameters such as relative humidity, mean radiant temperature, air temperature, and air velocity were measured using a thermal microclimate station during winter in February and March 2020. The main results indicated a strong correlation between operative temperature, predicted mean vote, and adaptive predicted mean vote, with the adaptive temperature estimated at around 21.65 °C. These findings highlighted the need to propose an adaptive thermal comfort strategy. Thus, a new adaptive model of the predicted mean vote was proposed and discussed, with a focus on the relationship between patient sensations and the thermal environment.
Highlights
Indoor thermal comfort has become an important topic for sustainable building research
The thermal comfort requirements of disabled people in healthcare buildings are an important research topic that concerns a specific population with medical conditions impacted by the indoor environment
A thermal model known as the adaptive predicted mean vote model, which considers the aforementioned factors and draws on the “black box” theory, was introduced by Yao et al [45]
Summary
Indoor thermal comfort has become an important topic for sustainable building research. Verheyen et al [20] investigated the thermal comfort of patients in a Belgian healthcare facility by comparing objective parameters and subjective measures of thermal comfort for different patient groups They concluded that PMV can adequately predict mean thermal sensation for the majority of patients. The main purpose of this field study is to determine the thermal sensation of occupants in order to adapt thermal approaches to vulnerable people in medico-social buildings. Adapting the thermal environment of occupants in medico-social institutions is crucial to maintain a good quality of service and support a population that is vulnerable to illness To achieve this goal, we correlate thermal sensation to the indoor environment. The optimal temperature is calculated based on the adaptive thermal comfort approach to develop a new PMV model that provides a relationship between the indoor parameters and the thermal sensation of occupants
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