The seasonal differences of neutral or acceptable temperatures between summer and winter were revealed by previous researchers, but the studies on the difference of human thermal adaption in transitional seasons are insufficient. To clarify this, this paper analyzes the data from a nationwide field study database, including a year-long survey which was carried out in 505 residential buildings in six cities located in the Hot Summer and Cold Winter (HSCW) zone of China involving 11,524 subjects. Results show a significant difference of adaptive responses in different seasons. Air temperature is found to be the most significant driver for behavioral responses, and a lag of behavioral responses behind climate change in transitional seasons is observed. Occupants not only adjust clothing insulation according to air temperature in different seasons, but also actively control indoor air movement, including closing/opening windows and using fans. The seasonal, monthly and daily

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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

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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.

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This paper proposes a new technical process to utilize flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum in fluidized beds. Gypsum is stable in the inert atmosphere and instable in the reducing atmosphere. Decomposing properties of gypsum in multiatmospheres were investigated in both a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and a fluidized bed reactor. Results from the TGA showed that the initial decomposing temperatures of gypsum in all reducing atmospheres are about 800 °C; however, the ratio between CaS and CaO in the product is influenced by CO concentration ([CO]). Higher [CO] is beneficial to speeding the decomposition. The analysis of mass spectrometer showed that part of CaS was oxidized to CaO when the atmosphere was changed from the reducing one with [CO] = 2% to the oxidizing one with O2 concentration of 0.6%, which was proved by the XRD analysis of the final product with content of CaO of 91.6%. Fluidized bed experiments were done in a hot, lab scale, bubbling reactor. Results showed that CO2 can increase the CaO content in the product by restraining the side production of CaS significantly. After gypsum decomposition in the reducing atmosphere, a certain amount of air was injected to change the atmosphere to oxidizing, and more SO2 was released. The present research proves that a multistage fluidized bed system with multiatmospheres is feasible for gypsum decomposition.