Abstract
This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of two types of heated clothing (i.e., electrically and chemically heated clothing) in improving thermal comfort of university students while sitting in a simulated cold classroom environment. Eight male subjects performed three 90-min trials and three test scenarios were selected: EHC (i.e., electrically heated clothing), CHC (i.e., chemically heated clothing) and CON (i.e., the control, no heating). The trials were conducted in a climate chamber where the air temperature was 8.0 °C, RH = 80% and the air velocity was 0.17 m/s. Significantly higher mean skin (in both EHC and CHC) and body temperatures (in CHC) were found in the heated clothing compared to CON throughout the entire trials (p < 0.05). The whole-, upper- and lower-body thermal (TS) and comfort sensations (CS) were improved in the heated clothing (rated ‘Neutral’ and ‘Comfortable’, respectively, throughout the test) than CON (aggravated with time) (p < 0.05). Significantly higher finger temperatures (the 65–90th min, p < 0.05), finger blood flow (the 2–5th min in EHC and the 2–10th min in CHC, p < 0.05) and remarkably improved TSs at the hands and feet were detected in EHC and CHC than CON (p < 0.05). Finger dexterity was improved in CHC at the end of the test than the beginning (p < 0.05). CHC offered more heating benefits than EHC in terms of local skin temperature elevation at the trunk (p < 0.05). In summary, the heated clothing could serve as an effective method to improve both local- and whole-body thermal comfort of university students while sitting in cold classrooms.
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