Indoor environmental comfort in an antarctic research station: A case study

Abstract

The indoor environmental quality of research stations requires attention and constant improvement due to the harsh polar climatic conditions. We conducted a case study at an Antarctic research station from March 2021 to November 2022. Indoor and outdoor condition monitoring and questionnaire surveys with the occupants were conducted to obtain environmental parameters and subjective evaluations. Twenty-six participants were surveyed, and 355 sets of measurement data and subjective questionnaires were obtained. An analysis of environmental evaluations and adaptation behaviors demonstrated that more than 80% of the participants expected the indoor temperature to remain unchanged, and over 40% desired improvements in humidity, air quality, and overall environmental quality. Opening windows was the most common environmental adaptation behavior made by participants. However, they had high expectations for the overall environment, indicating the demand for diverse and effective environmental adaptive options in interior design. Moreover, we analyzed the weighting coefficients of the influence of various environmental evaluations on overall environmental perceptions and the correlations between them. The results revealed the importance of the thermal environment and air quality on overall evaluations. Regressions yielded thermal neutral temperature ranges of 18.4–21.3 °C and acceptable temperature ranges, at which 90% of participants were satisfied, of 21.6–26.7 °C. These results could guide future assessments of the indoor environmental comfort at Antarctic stations and help create polar building environments suitable for work and life.