Analyzing the Time-Varying Thermal Perception of Students in Classrooms and Its Influencing Factors from a Case Study in Xi’an, China

Abstract

Owing to movement in the spatial environment and changes in activity levels, students’ thermal perception is time varying in classrooms throughout different periods of the day. However, previous studies have rarely considered the time-varying thermal perception in different periods of the day, which may cause discomfort for students and lead to energy wastage. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate the time-varying thermal perception of students and its influencing factors in different classes of the day. In addition, the differences in students’ adaptive behaviors in different periods were also explored. A total of 578 university students were surveyed using questionnaire surveys during the heating season in Xi’an, China. The following results can be obtained: (1) The thermal sensation vote and thermal preference vote values in the afternoon were significantly higher than those in the morning. At the start of the first class in the morning/afternoon, the thermal sensation of the students had the highest sensitivity to outdoor temperature changes. (2) The students’ thermal perception was greatly affected by the preclass activity state at the start of the first class in the morning/afternoon. However, in other periods, the above phenomenon was not obvious. (3) In the afternoon, the frequency of clothing adjustment was greater than that in the morning, and this behavior would significantly affect the students’ thermal sensation. (4) Compared with the current classroom heating strategy, the heating strategy of dynamically adjusting the indoor set temperature according to the time-varying characteristics of the students can theoretically achieve energy savings of 25.6%.

Occupants’ Perceptions of Comfort, Control, and Adaptation in Colonial Revival Style Residences

“…Both Adekunle and Nikolopoulou [9] and Luo et al [13] explained that occupants' understanding of thermal comfort could change depending on their experience of the thermal environment. Additionally, existing research noted among other factors [9,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], age and gender of occupants [12,15], ownership status [9], hours of occupation per day [9,16], aesthetics [17,18], building type, size, design [17], elements [18], control features [9,18], building location [17][18][19], income level [20,21], effectiveness of control [9,22], length of occupancy [9], proximity to public amenities [23], subsidized tenancy [24], seasonal change [5,11,[25][26][27][28], daylighting [29], climatic region [11,21,28], materials used for the construction of buildings [9,12,21,…”

“…The second technique requires people to adjust their behavior and habits [44]. As previously discussed, occupants will adjust their patterns of occupation [9] and expectations of comfort [38][39][40][41][42][43] based on seasonal changes [5,11,[25][26][27][28]. They will also be involved in social and cultural traditions that enhance the thermal quality of the environment [44].…”

Learning Environment Design and Use

“…It is certainly international and interdisciplinary. The authors, who are architects, educationalists, but also acknowledged learning environment researchers, are based in a range of countries across most continents, investigating learning spaces and design processes in China [4,5], Australia [6], Europe [7][8][9], South America [8], and the Nordic countries [10][11][12]. Interestingly, the contribution from Australia [2], where so much school building has occurred recently, presents a transdisciplinary review of the international literature to develop an understanding of affordance theory related to school design.…”

“…Looking across the educational contexts of the contributions, a range of educational sectors are evident. Educational spaces and resources in schools and universities feature catering for younger children [8,11], older children [7,10,12], and adults [4,5,9]. The papers include some that focus particularly on ILEs [6,[10][11][12], but others that investigate other spaces for learning and teaching [4,5,[7][8][9], which seems important when it is considered that ILEs, although much discussed, are still out-numbered by more traditional settings, even in countries where they are being embraced [13].…”

“…Turning now to the stage of the design and use timeline that the papers address and bearing in mind the criticism of Blackmore and colleagues back in 2011 [2] of the neglect of stages beyond initial planning and designing, it is good, and encouraging, to see a range. Although some papers do indeed focus on the design phase [6,8,10,12], others investigate spaces in use [4,5], particularly presenting approaches to post-occupancy evaluations, POE [9,11], and users' reflections on buildings in use [7].…”