Cooling with Box Fans
Two experiments are described. Experiment 1 investigated the preferred direction of air upon a person. Forty males sat in front of a box fan in 12 different seating orientations (30° increments). Air velocity was .7 m/s (140 ft/min); room temperature was 28 C (82 F) with 40% rh. The preference was bimodal with the most preferred directions from the front or the rear; velocities from the side were less preferred. Experiment 2 investigated 3 velocities (“still air”, .8 m/s (160 ft/min) and 1.3 m/s (260 ft/min)) at 3 temperatures (25.6, 27.8 and 30 C; 78, 82, 86 F). Eight subjects each spent three hours in each of the 9 conditions. Clothing was standardized at about .5 clo. Subjects did a paper and pencil task (maze) and a peg into hole task. Thermal comfort and thermal sensation ballots were completed every 15 min. At the end of 150 min., they moved their chair in relation to the fan so as to select their preferred velocity. The current recommended ceiling of .8 m/s for sedentary office work is too low as the subject-selected velocity was .7 m/s at 25.6 C, was 1.0 m/s at 27.8 C and was 1.2 m/s at 30 C. These results were confirmed by the thermal comfort and thermal sensation ballots. Depending on the criterion used, for seated sedentary work in warm conditions, every 0.1 m/s (20 ft/min) increase in air velocity offsets approximately a 0.4 C (0.7 F) increase in temperature (0.7 < V < 1.2 m/s).