Physiological thermal response in typical air conditioning Environment

Abstract

Energy consumption for space cooling is increasing in Chinese residential buildings due to the extensive use of split air conditioners. To build a comfortable indoor environment and reduce energy consumption, comprehensive understanding about human thermal requirements of air conditioning is highly needed. As a reflection of human demand for indoor thermal environment, thermal sensation is usually under the effect of human physiological responses. For these reasons, a series of experiments were conducted in a climate chamber to understand human physiological thermal responses in air conditioning environment. During the experiments, indoor temperature was kept at 29°C in the first 30 minutes and then cooled down to 25°C in the next 30 minutes, after that, indoor temperature was held stable in the final 60 minutes. Twenty subjects were recruited to participate in the experiments. Results reveal that first, the temperature of limbs was lower than trunk due to the blood flood and clothing resistance, second, skin temperature and Thermal Sensation Vote(TSV) may still be in the dynamic change after the ambient temperature reached stable, third, significant linear correlation was found between skin temperature and TSV in the limbs, moreover, individual difference could be found in local skin temperature.