How Can We Adapt Thermal Comfort for Disabled Patients? A Case Study of French Healthcare Buildings in Summer

Youcef Bouzidi, Zoubayre El Akili, Antoine Gademer, Nacef Tazi and Adil Chahboun
Additional contact information
Youcef Bouzidi: Interdisciplinary Research on Society-Technology-Environment Interactions (lnSyTE), CREIDD, University of Technology of Troyes, 12 Rue Marie Curie, CS 42060, CEDEX, 10004 Troyes, France
Zoubayre El Akili: Interdisciplinary Research on Society-Technology-Environment Interactions (lnSyTE), CREIDD, University of Technology of Troyes, 12 Rue Marie Curie, CS 42060, CEDEX, 10004 Troyes, France
Antoine Gademer: Institute of Electronics and Systems UMR 5214, EPF Graduate School of Engineering, 21 Bd Berthelot, 34000 Montpellier, France
Nacef Tazi: Cerema, 112 Rue de Paris, 77171 Sourdun, France
Adil Chahboun: Thin Films and Nanomaterials Laboratory, Faculty of Science and Technology, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Ancienne Route de l’Aéroport, Km 10, Ziaten, Tanger BP: 416, Morocco

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 15, 1-21

Abstract: This paper investigates adaptive thermal comfort during summer in medical residences that are located in the French city of Troyes and managed by the Association of Parents of Disabled Children (APEI). Thermal comfort in these buildings is evaluated using subjective measurements and objective physical parameters. The thermal sensations of respondents were determined by questionnaires, while thermal comfort was estimated using the predicted mean vote (PMV) model. Indoor environmental parameters (relative humidity, mean radiant temperature, air temperature, and air velocity) were measured using a thermal environment sensor during the summer period in July and August 2018. A good correlation was found between operative temperature, mean radiant temperature, and PMV. The neutral temperature was determined by linear regression analysis of the operative temperature and Fanger’s PMV model. The obtained neutral temperature is 23.7 °C. Based on the datasets and questionnaires, the adaptive coefficient α representing patients’ capacity to adapt to heat was found to be 1.261. A strong correlation was also observed between the sequential thermal index n ( t ) and the adaptive temperature. Finally, a new empirical model of adaptive temperature was developed using the data collected from a longitudinal survey in four residential buildings of APEI in summer, and the obtained adaptive temperature is 25.0 °C with upper and lower limits of 24.7 °C and 25.4 °C.

Keywords: thermal comfort; healthcare facility; disabled people; adaptive thermal comfort; indoor environment; air-conditioned building (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/15/4530/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/15/4530/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:15:p:4530-:d:602264

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().