Abstract
Overheating of buildings is currently a hot topic in the Western World. A significant amount of energy is needed for air conditioning and ventilation of public and commercial buildings. Nevertheless, up to 80% of the occupants are dissatisfied with the thermal environment, even though buildings meet thermal comfort criteria as determined by the ASHRAE Standard 55 and ISO Standard 7730. Physiological parameters such as sex, age, body composition and metabolic rate can have a great effect on an individual's perception of the thermal environment. A study among young Europeans indicated that the preferred ambient temperature might vary as much as 10 °C between individuals. However, it is not yet clear how an individual's thermal comfort zone (TCZ) relates to the physiological thermo-neutral zone (TNZ). Moreover, unlike thermoregulatory adaptations to strong repetitive heat challenges, it is unknown to what extent humans adapt to more mild warm ambient conditions in terms of subjective perception and thermo-regulatory physiology. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship of an individual's TNZ and TCZ as well as the influence of 7 days of mild heat acclimation on TNZ and TCZ. Since the study is still ongoing, preliminary data will be presented.
Highlights
Overheating of buildings is currently a hot topic in the Western World
Up to 80% of the occupants are dissatisfied with the thermal environment, even though buildings meet thermal comfort criteria as determined by the ASHRAE Standard 55 and ISO Standard 7730
Unlike thermoregulatory adaptations to strong repetitive heat challenges, it is unknown to what extent humans adapt to more mild warm ambient conditions in terms of subjective perception and thermo-regulatory physiology
Summary
Human thermoneutral zone and thermal comfort zone: effects of mild heat acclimation. Hannah Pallubinsky1*, Lisje Schellen, Boris RM Kingma, Wouter D van Marken Lichtenbelt. From 15th International Conference on Environmental Ergonomics (ICEE XV) Portsmouth, UK. From 15th International Conference on Environmental Ergonomics (ICEE XV) Portsmouth, UK. 28 June - 3 July 2015
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