Application of the Adaptive Thermal Comfort Model to Australian School Classrooms

摘要

This survey of thermal comfort in classrooms aimed to empirically define preferred temperatures,neutral temperatures,and acceptable temperature ranges for Australian school children,and to compare them with findings from adult populations.The survey was conducted in a mixture of air-conditioned,evaporative-cooled,and naturally ventilated classrooms in nine schools during the summer of 2013.A total of 2,850 questionnaires were collected from both primary (grade) and high schools.An indoor operative temperature of about 22.5 °C was found to be the students' neutral and preferred temperature,which is generally cooler than expected of adults under the same thermal environmental conditions.Results from this study indicate that comfort temperatures for school children are lower than adults.Thermal sensitivity decreases for children in schools located in climate zones with large temperature variance.