Investigation and analysis of thermal comfort in naturally ventilated secondary school classrooms in the composite climate of India

Abstract

ABSTRACT India is a vast country spread across five climatic zones. The current Indian building codes specify thermal comfort standards for naturally ventilated offices only. This paper presents a year-long field study carried out during 2015–16 to investigate thermal comfort in naturally ventilated (NV) classrooms of three government residential schools located in the composite climatic zone of India. A total of 1890 data sets were collected from children and teenagers in the age group of 10–18 years. The students in naturally ventilated classrooms were found to be more adaptive than what is prescribed in the ASHRAE thermal comfort standards. Indoor operative temperatures of 28.2°C and 19.4°C were recorded as the neutral temperatures of the summer and winter seasons, respectively. The study proposes a thermal comfort range of 16°C to 33.7°C for 80% acceptability. The study also proposes an adaptive thermal comfort model for naturally ventilated secondary school classrooms in composite climatic zones. The results show that students are adapted to higher temperatures in classroom environments. The study provides a baseline for further research in developing thermal comfort standards for secondary school classrooms in India.