Using Upper Extremity Skin Temperatures to Assess Thermal Comfort in Office Buildings in Changsha, China

Zhibin Wu, Nianping Li, Haijiao Cui, Jinqing Peng, Haowen Chen and Penglong Liu
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Zhibin Wu: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410081, China
Nianping Li: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410081, China
Haijiao Cui: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410081, China
Jinqing Peng: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410081, China
Haowen Chen: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410081, China
Penglong Liu: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410081, China

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: Existing thermal comfort field studies are mainly focused on the relationship between the indoor physical environment and the thermal comfort. In numerous chamber experiments, physiological parameters were adopted to assess thermal comfort, but the experiments’ conclusions may not represent a realistic thermal environment due to the highly controlled thermal environment and few occupants. This paper focuses on determining the relationships between upper extremity skin temperatures (i.e., finger, wrist, hand and forearm) and the indoor thermal comfort. Also, the applicability of predicting thermal comfort by using upper extremity skin temperatures was explored. Field studies were performed in office buildings equipped with split air-conditioning (SAC) located in the hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) climate zone of China during the summer of 2016. Psychological responses of occupants were recorded and physical and physiological factors were measured simultaneously. Standard effective temperature (SET*) was used to incorporate the effect of humidity and air velocity on thermal comfort. The results indicate that upper extremity skin temperatures are good indicators for predicting thermal sensation, and could be used to assess the thermal comfort in terms of physiological mechanism. In addition, the neutral temperature was 24.7 °C and the upper limit for 80% acceptability was 28.2 °C in SET*.

Keywords: thermal comfort; thermal sensation; thermal acceptability; thermal perception; upper extremity skin temperatures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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