A pilot study monitoring the thermal comfort of the elderly living in nursing homes in Hefei, China, using wireless sensor networks, site measurements and a survey

Yu, Jingyu; Hassan, Tanbir; Bai, Yongzhen; An, Ning; Tam, Vivian W.Y.

doi:10.1177/1420326x19891225

Cited by 18 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(40 reference statements)

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“…Besides, the thermal environment is an important factor that could affect sleep quality. [18][19][20][21] Therefore, the objective of this study is to carry out more detailed unsteady thermal comfortable research on the sleeping environment during defrosting, in aspects of airflow and temperature distribution and thermal comfort distribution. In this study, considering the advantages of energy saving of task/ambient air conditioning (TAC) system, 22,23 a task/ambient ASHP (T-ASHP) system was designed, which can deliver the heated air from the ASHP directly to the sleeping human body.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unsteady characteristics of sleeping thermal comfort during defrosting of a T-ASHP system

Mei

et al. 2022

Indoor and Built Environment

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Defrosting is necessary for the normal operation of air source heat pump (ASHP) units to solve the frosting in the winter, which deteriorates the performance of ASHP. During this defrosting period, the ASHP cannot provide heat to the indoor space, leading to adverse thermal comfort, which may reduce the sleep quality. Hence, a task/ambient ASHP (T-ASHP) system was designed in this study, and the transient thermal environment was investigated through a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method. The duration of t oz (average air temperature in the occupied zone) increase period was 4.33 times as long as t oz decrease period, although the duration of the phase 1 heating period was 1.9 times as that of defrosting period. During the defrosting procedure, the PMV value decreased to the lowest value of −0.83, and the period of feeling cool and slightly cool lasted for 45.4 min. The hand, foot and leg parts were much cooler than the whole body, and the non-uniformity of the PMV value on body parts was obviously enlarged during the defrosting period. Higher draught risk around 22% near the head and trunk regions was found during the defrosting period and was significantly reduced in the follow-up heating period. Practical application: The results from this study emphasize the sleeping thermal comfort during defrosting of air source heat pumps. The present study gave a map of transient thermal comfortable levels influenced by the operating of defrosting and re-heating. These results should serve as a recommendation to air source heat pump designers to determine suitable defrosting technology to maintain normal indoor thermal comfort.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unsteady characteristics of sleeping thermal comfort during defrosting of a T-ASHP system

Mei

et al. 2022

Indoor and Built Environment

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“…Through the recent advancements in multiple algorithms and technologies, wireless sensor nodes are equipped with sensing, processing, computing, and communicating capabilities [9]. Besides, due to features such as cognitive performance, low cost, and high fault tolerance, the vision of the WSNs is couched on many applications, including traffic control systems [10][11][12], biomedical health monitoring [13,14], automated assistance for the elderly [15,16], industrial control systems [17], virtual reality [18][19][20], and environmental monitoring systems [21,22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Integrated Routing Mechanism on Homogenous Wireless Sensor Networks using Genetic Algorithm

Danehchin

2021

Preprint

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Data collection on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is a significant challenge to satisfy the requirements of various applications. Providing an energy-efficient routing technique is the primary step in data collection over WSNs. The existing data collection techniques in the WSNs field struggle with the imbalance load distribution and the short lifetime of the network. This paper proposes a novel mechanism to select cluster-heads, cluster the wireless sensor nodes, and determine the optimal route from source nodes to the sink. We employ the genetic algorithm to solve the routing problem considering the hop-count of the cluster-heads to the sink, the number of each cluster member, residual energy of cluster-heads, and the number of cluster-heads connected to the sink as the fitness criteria. Our proposed mechanism uses a greedy approach to calculate the hop-count of each cluster-head to the sink for integrating the clustering and routing process on WSNs. The simulation results demonstrate that our proposed mechanism improves the energy consumption, the number of live nodes, and the lifetime of the network compared to other data collection approaches on WSNs.

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“…20 A recent study on elderly thermal comfort in a nursing home in China found considerable adaptive behaviours in response to seasonal variations of thermal environments. 21 To many elderlies, the use of open spaces during hot period is considered a heat-coping strategy, 22 and the behaviour was often formulated prior to the advent of home air conditioning. 23 Physiologically, the elderlies are considered the most vulnerable group under heat stress, due to reduced thermoregulatory responses such as sweating rate, skin blood flow and cardiovascular functions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat stress and outdoor activities in open spaces of public housing estates in Hong Kong: A perspective of the elderly community

Huang

Chen

Jones

et al. 2020

Indoor and Built Environment

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Open spaces in Hong Kong are in short supply and they are often underused due to the adverse climate, especially in hot and humid summer. This is a missed opportunity that can be otherwise realized to promote health and social interactions for local communities. The high density urban environment makes the condition worse by raising the urban heat island effect and leaving planners with fewer mitigation options. This study aims to test the hypotheses that an unfavourable thermal environment disrupts the use of outdoor open spaces; if yes, whether such disruptions differ by age groups. On-site measurement and computer simulations were conducted in three open spaces in public housing estates in Ngau Tau Kok, Hong Kong. Thermal conditions were assessed using the Universal Thermal Climate Index. Occupant activities were recorded, together with a questionnaire survey. Results showed that an open space purposefully designed for breeze and shading was 2.0°C cooler in Universal Thermal Climate Index compared with the other two. It attracted more optional/social activities, higher frequency of visits, and longer duration of stay. The elderly activities were more susceptible to disruptions from heat stress compared with younger groups. Elderly activities largely diminish when ambient thermal environment exceed 39°C in Universal Thermal Climate Index. Findings have implications to design and retrofitting of open spaces in order to maximize their use.

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A pilot study monitoring the thermal comfort of the elderly living in nursing homes in Hefei, China, using wireless sensor networks, site measurements and a survey

Cited by 18 publications

References 29 publications

Unsteady characteristics of sleeping thermal comfort during defrosting of a T-ASHP system

Unsteady characteristics of sleeping thermal comfort during defrosting of a T-ASHP system

An Integrated Routing Mechanism on Homogenous Wireless Sensor Networks using Genetic Algorithm

Heat stress and outdoor activities in open spaces of public housing estates in Hong Kong: A perspective of the elderly community

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