Similar as temperature, air humidity may affect people's thermal comfort and humidity adaptation may happen when people changing their living conditions. To provide evidence on both effect from humidity on people's thermal comfort and their humidity adaptation, a comparative study has been conducted in a controlled climate chamber. During the experiment, the air temperature was set as 25 °C and 28 °C respectively and the relative humidity was changing between 20% and 90%. There were twenty four participants involved in this experiment, with half living in High Humidity (HH) regions of China, such as Chongqing, for over 20 years, and another half recently moved to Chongqing from Low Humidity (LH) regions in northwestern China. During the experiment, mean skin temperature was measured as objective an important parameter and subjective questionnaires were used to subjectively collect

Elderly demand for thermal comfort and energy conservation in senior citizen centers is increasing in an aging society. To reveal the thermal responses of the elderly in a warm summer environment, a field study involving experimental measurements was conducted in Chongqing, China.The study included 333 subjects in 17 residential buildings and 119 subjects in 6 elderly nursing homes; it showed that elderly persons as passive users of air conditioners preferred cooling by natural ventilation. The mean thermal sensation vote was lower than estimates obtained from the PMV model in warm environments. The physiological responses of eight elderly subjects (65 ± 3) were measured in a climate chamber at 18 °C and 34 °C and compared with those from eight college students (22 ± 1) and eight middle-aged subjects (50 ± 5). In this chamber, oral temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate of elderly and middle-aged persons were determined to be almost constant as the air temperature was changed to a hot/cold environment for 30 min, a different result from that of the young subjects. However, the skin temperature for all age groups showed variation with air temperature, suggesting skin temperature as an optimal monitoring parameter for the entire population.

In practice, passengers actively respond to the thermal environment when they board an aircraft in winter, which is not considered in the current standards. In this study, the behavioural, physiological and psychological responses to the thermal environment were examined at 22 °C (with 68 subjects), 20 °C and 26 °C (with 32 subjects). The results showed that the three air temperature levels had significant effect on nozzle usage and clothing adjustment behaviours, surface skin temperature, and thermal sensation vote (TSV). The walking/waiting states prior to boarding the aircraft cabin had a significant effect on the proportion of jacket removal, TSV and thermal comfort vote. After 10 min in the aircraft cabin, the subjects maintained their comfort in a wider range of the thermal environment when the behavioural adjustments existed compared to when they did not. Thus, a suggestion was made for behavioural adjustments to be provided in aircraft cabins. Practitioner Summary: Experimental investigation of human responses was conducted in an aircraft cabin. Analysis showed that the subjects maintained their comfort in a wider range of the thermal environment when the behavioural adjustments existed compared to when they did not. Thus, a suggestion was made for behavioural adjustments to be provided in aircraft cabins.

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