The effect of indoor thermal history on human thermal responses in cold environments of early winter.

Abstract

Human thermal adaptation is an important factor of indoor thermal comfort and energy conservation. To study the effect of indoor thermal history on cold adaptation in the early winter, climate chamber tests were conducted in cold environments at 16 °C with two different thermal experience groups. The groups are divided as follows: the natural ventilation (NV) group consisted of subjects living in naturally ventilated buildings (approximately 11.8 ± 3.4 °C in winter (Liu, H., Wu, Y., Li, B., Cheng, Y., Yao, R., 2017. Seasonal variation of thermal sensations in residential buildings in the Hot Summer and Cold Winter zone of China. Energy and Buildings 140, 9-18)) and the air conditioning (AC) group consisted of subjects living in air-conditioned buildings for at least one year before the climate chamber experiments. The experiments on the NV and AC groups were conducted between December 1-13 and December 15-25, respectively. Each group consisted of 20 subjects wearing winter clothes (1.15 ± 0.05 clo). The thermal sensation votes (TSVs) and thermal comfort votes (TCVs) in both groups were investigated and the subjects' skin temperatures were monitored during the experiments. The results showed that the mean TCV and TSV of both groups were not significantly different in the early winter. However, differences were observed in the subjects' localized body parts. The skin temperatures of the chest and arms of subjects in the NV group were higher than those in the AC group after exposure for 60 min at 16 °C, while calves skin temperatures of subjects in the NV group were lower. In addition, subjects in the AC group were found to feel colder compared to those in the NV group in cold environments at the same skin temperature. Thus, this study provides information about thermal comfort based on thermal experience in early winter.