scholarly journals Mood state and human evaluation of the thermal environment using virtual settings

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-86
Author(s):  
Anwar Ibrahim ◽  
Hikmat Ali ◽  
Aroub Zghoul ◽  
Suha Jaradat

Many complaints about indoor conditions are related to unsatisfactory thermal environments. Most research on thermal comfort (TC) considered physical parameters for settings and users yet marginalized the influence of user’s psychological aspects in the process of thermal sensation. Immersive virtual reality (VR) has been used in the built environment to simulate real scenarios. This research examines the effect of mood states on human evaluation of the thermal environment in virtual settings. Forty-four university students from Jordan participated. The experiment followed the ‘Experimental Design Method’ using thermally controlled chamber and TC evaluation using psychological responses developed by Fanger. The participants completed the PANAS-X pre-mood test before watching a video that targeted eliciting predetermined mood states: anger and happiness. The participants were then immersed in two virtual environments and asked to complete ASHRAE 7-point scale of TC. General Linear model was used to analyse the data. The results revealed a relationship between TC, mood state and quality of the indoor environment. Humans’ judgment on TC is a variable mental reaction. The research presents differences between the evaluation of angry and happy people to their thermal environments. This study expands research on the indoor environment quality and develops TC evaluation strategies.

2019 ◽  
Vol 282 ◽  
pp. 02031
Author(s):  
Ricardo M.S.F. Almeida ◽  
Eva Barreira ◽  
Sandra Soares ◽  
Ramos Nuno M.M. ◽  
Sérgio Lopes ◽  
...  

The importance of a good indoor environment for peoples’ health and wellbeing is nowadays clearly established. Besides enhancing the wellbeing of building occupants and helping decrease the occurrence of building related illness, a good indoor environment can also lead to a decrease in worker complaints and absenteeism. This paper presents the results of a three-month monitoring campaign where the thermal comfort of a toll station was evaluated, including the main room and the cabins. The physical parameters required for the assessment of both global and local thermal comfort were measured and the results were compared with the thermal perception of the occupants, which was collected through questionnaires. The indoor environmental quality in the main room was better than in the cabins and a mismatch between the PMV index and the occupants thermal sensation was identified.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (4/5) ◽  
pp. 427-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baharuddin Hamzah ◽  
Muhammad Taufik Ishak ◽  
Syarif Beddu ◽  
Mohammad Yoenus Osman

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse thermal comfort and the thermal environment in naturally ventilated classrooms. Specifically, the aims of the study were to identify the thermal environment and thermal comfort of respondents in naturally ventilated university classrooms and compare them with the ASHRAE and Indonesian National Standard (SNI); to check on whether the predicted mean vote (PMV) model is applicable or not for predicting the thermal comfort of occupants in naturally ventilated university classrooms; and to analyse the neutral temperature of occupants in the naturally ventilated university classrooms. Design/methodology/approach The study was carried out at the new campus of Faculty of Engineering, Hasanuddin University, Gowa campus. A number of field surveys, which measured thermal environments, namely, air temperature, mean radiant temperature (MRT), relative humidity, and air velocity, were carried out. The personal activity and clothing properties were also recorded. At the same time, respondents were asked to fill a questionnaire to obtain their thermal sensation votes (TSV) and thermal comfort votes (TCV), thermal preference, and thermal acceptance. A total of 118 respondents participated in the study. Before the survey was conducted, a brief explanation was provided to the participants to ensure that they understood the study objectives and also how to fill in the questionnaires. Findings The results indicated that the surveyed classrooms had higher thermal environments than those specified in the well-known ASHRAE standard and Indonesian National Standard (SNI). However, this condition did not make respondents feel uncomfortable because a large proportion of respondents voted within the comfort zone (+1, 0, and −1). The predictive mean vote using the PMV model was higher than the respondents’ votes either by TSV or by TCV. There was a huge difference between neutral temperature using operative temperature (To) and air temperature (Ta). This difference may have been because of the small value of MRT recorded in the measured classrooms. Originality/value The research shows that the use of the PMV model in predicting thermal comfort in the tropic region might be misleading. This is because PMV mostly overestimates the TSV and TCV of the respondents. People in the tropic region are more tolerant to a higher temperature. On the basis of this finding, there is a need to develop a new thermal comfort model for university classrooms that is particularly optimal for this tropical area.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 00021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Cichowicz ◽  
Artur Stelęgowski

Thermal microclimate in a boiler room is formed by factors resulting from thermal processes that are taking place in combustion units. These factors are negatively affecting the indoor environment by worsening the air quality, and therefore it is crucial to maintain adequate air parameters in the room. It is a consequence of the fact that in the boiler room the operation of technological equipment results in an exposure of workers to adverse effects caused by thermal factors. Therefore, the evaluation of thermal conditions in the work area of people was made for the selected industrial boiler room using PMV and PPD indices (which allow to determine the thermal sensation of employees, regarding their surrounding thermal environment, based on the methodology of ISO 7730 standard). The analysis was based on own experimental measurements and numerical calculations made in the DesignBuilder program.


2021 ◽  
pp. 277-277
Author(s):  
Xiaozhou Wu ◽  
Genglin Liu ◽  
Jie Gao ◽  
Shuang Wu

A ceiling cooling (CC) system integrated with a mechanical ventilation system is an advanced HVAC system for the modern office building with glass curtain wall. In this paper, considering the influence of heat transfer of external envelope, the indoor thermal environment and human thermal comfort were objectively measured and subjectively evaluated in a ceiling cooling room with mixing ventilation (MV) or underfloor air distribution (UFAD). Indoor physical parameters and human skin temperatures were measured as the chilled ceiling surface temperature and supply air temperature were 17.1?C-17.6?C and 22.2?C - 22.6?C. Simultaneously, 16 subjects (8 males and 8 females) were selected to subjectively evaluate the thermal environment. The results showed that the difference between mean radiant temperature and air temperature in the occupied zone was 0.8?C with CC+MV and 1.2?C with CC+UFAD, and the indoor air velocity was 0.17m/s with CC+MV and 0.13m/s with CC+UFAD. In addition, the calculated and measured thermal sensation votes with CC+MV were all slightly less than those with CC+UFAD. Therefore, ventilation system type had a slight impact on the indoor thermal environment and human thermal comfort in the ceiling cooling room.


2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 340-347
Author(s):  
Lenka Prokšová Zuská ◽  
Michal Kabrhel

The objective of this study was to develop a documentation for the amendment of the microclimatic part of the Czech Government Regulation, particularly in a non-uniform radiant-convective load evaluation. Changes in regulation were made based on experimental data obtained on a group of experimental individuals in a climatic chamber. One of the objectives of the climatic chamber experiments was to evaluate whether there was a possibility to use an alternative method, which utilizes a new value – stereotemperature, for the assessment. A group of 24 women was exposed to a non-uniform radiant-convective load in a climatic chamber for 1 hour during their computer work. Measurements were divided according to the globe temperature into 3 stages. The physical parameters of air were continuously measured: the air temperature, globe temperature, air velocity, radiant temperature, relative humidity, stereotemperature and physiological parameters. Thermal sensations of experimental subjects were expressed in the seven-point scale according to EN ISO 7730. The thermal sensation correlated very well with the difference of stereotemperature and the globe temperature. The stereotemperature correlated very well with the radiant temperature. In this work, the composed equations were used to develop the limit values for the thermal stress evaluation in the uniform and non-uniform thermal environment at workplaces. It is possible to determine how the body of an exposed person perceives the non-uniform climatic conditions in the indoor environment, by adding the stereotemperature to government regulations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 02065
Author(s):  
Toshiki Namai ◽  
Jun Shinoda ◽  
Ryoya Furukawa ◽  
Shin-ichi Tanabe ◽  
Kosuke Sato ◽  
...  

Thermo Active Building System (TABS) is applied in office buildings in many European countries as a promising energy-efficient solution with a comfortable thermal environment. However, TABS is rarely applied in Japanese buildings because of the risk of dew condensation during the hot and humid summer season. In this study, the indoor environment and thermal sensation in an office building equipped with TABS was investigated; the building is located in an urban area in Tokyo, Japan. Soon after occupancy, field measurements and questionnaire surveys were conducted during the summer and winter seasons for two consecutive years. The operation of TABS was improved based on first-year measurement results. As a result, the ceiling surface setpoint temperature was relaxed, maintaining high satisfaction in summer. In winter, it was confirmed that the operation of TABS was not necessary, and, as a result, satisfaction improved.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1973
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Majewski ◽  
Łukasz J. Orman ◽  
Marek Telejko ◽  
Norbert Radek ◽  
Jacek Pietraszek ◽  
...  

The paper analyses the indoor environment in two modern intelligent buildings located in Poland. Measurements of air and globe temperatures, relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentration in 117 rooms carried out in the space of 1.5 years were presented. Thermal comfort of the occupants has been investigated using a questionnaire survey. Based on 1369 questionnaires, thermal sensation, acceptability and preference votes were analysed in view of their interdependency as well as their dependency on operative temperature, which proved to be very strong. It has been found that the respondents did not completely rate thermal comfort and indoor environment quality as very high, although the overwhelming sensations were positive. Apart from the operation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, this might have also been the cause of individual human factors, such as body mass index, as tested in the study, or the finding that people were generally in favour of a warmer environment. Moreover, thermal environment proved to be the most important element for ensuring the well-being of the occupants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12764
Author(s):  
Xinzhi Gong ◽  
Qinglin Meng ◽  
Yilei Yu

It is important to consider reducing energy use while improving occupants’ indoor thermal comfort. The actual thermal comfort needs and demands should be considered to determine the indoor thermal environment design. In previous studies, research has not been carried out on thermal comfort in karst areas. Thus, a long-term field investigation was carried out on multi-storey residential buildings in the karst area of Guilin city centre during summer (from August 2019 to September 2019) and winter (from December 2019 to January 2020). In this study, the indoor thermal environments of three categories of dwellings were analysed. A total of 77 residential buildings with 144 households were randomly selected, and 223 occupants from 18 to 80 years old participated. A total of 414 effective questionnaires were collected from the subjects. The results show that there was an obvious conflict between the predicted mean vote (PMV) and the thermal sensation vote (TSV). The neutrality temperatures calculated by the regression method were 24.2 °C in summer and 16.2 °C in winter. The thermal comfort range was observed at operative temperatures of 20.9–27.5 °C in summer and 12.2–20.1 °C in winter. The desired thermal sensation for people in the Guilin karst area was not always reflected in the thermal neutrality range. A preference for warmness was identified in the survey.


Author(s):  
Laurentiu Predescu ◽  
Daniel Dunea

Optical monitors have proven their versatility into the studies of air quality in the workplace and indoor environments. The current study aimed to perform a screening of the indoor environment regarding the presence of various fractions of particulate matter (PM) and the specific thermal microclimate in a classroom occupied with students in March 2019 (before COVID-19 pandemic) and in March 2021 (during pandemic) at Valahia University Campus, Targoviste, Romania. The objectives were to assess the potential exposure of students and academic personnel to PM and to observe the performances of various sensors and monitors (particle counter, PM monitors, and indoor microclimate sensors). PM1 ranged between 29 and 41 μg m−3 and PM10 ranged between 30 and 42 μg m−3. It was observed that the particles belonged mostly to fine and submicrometric fractions in acceptable thermal environments according to the PPD and PMV indices. The particle counter recorded preponderantly 0.3, 0.5, and 1.0 micron categories. The average acute dose rate was estimated as 6.58 × 10−4 mg/kg-day (CV = 14.3%) for the 20–40 years range. Wearing masks may influence the indoor microclimate and PM levels but additional experiments should be performed at a finer scale.


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