THE OPTIMUM AIR-CONDITIONING OPERATING METHOD FOR A LARGE-SCALE GRAND LOBBY PART 2 FIELD EXPERIMENTS ON THERMAL PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSES AT AN ATRIUM USED AS A BUFFER SPACE BETWEEN OUTDOORS AND A WORKSPACE

摘要

We conducted in two field experiments, one carried out in summer and the other in winter, to study whether or not the thermal environment of an atrium was comfortable when subjects moved through this buffer space from outdoors to a workspace. In winter, air temperature differences between the outdoors, the buffer space, and the workspace varied from 2 to 10°C, although the maximum air temperature difference between the outdoors and the workspace was about 15°C. Therefore, passing through the buffer space reduced the physiological load.Consequently, the subjects felt almost no discomfort. In summer, however different psychological and physiological responses between males and females were seen. Male subjects voted 'uncomfortable' even when they entered the workspace and their skin temperatures continued to drop while moving from outdoors to indoors.This is because males sweat much more than females, and males felt 'warm' and 'uncomfortable' by the high setting of atrium temperature. Thus, it is advisable to consider the different physiological responses of males and females sweating in summer.