Determining the diurnal variation in comfort temperature in school buildings in the warm and humid climate

Abstract

PurposeThe paper aims to determine the thermal comfort perception of schoolchildren from a warm and humid environment. There is a concern about the effect of high temperature on the health and academic performance of schoolchildren.Design/methodology/approachObjective and subjective methodological approaches were adopted to collect data during the fieldwork in the selected primary schools. ASHRAE adaptive comfort model was adopted to analyze the data.FindingsThe paper provided empirical results about the comfort requirements of schoolchildren from the warm and humid environment. During the occupied school time, the studied schoolchildren were found to tolerate temperatures higher than the upper limit temperature recommended by ASHRAE Standard 55. The paper recommends that the studied children may not need any active ventilator to be thermally comfortable during the occupied school hoursOriginality/valueThe paper found the range of temperatures that schoolchildren from the warm and humid environment can adapt to. The information may be useful to architects, engineers and facility managers

Critical Review of the Literature on Thermal Comfort in Educational Buildings: Study of the Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Therefore, several authors state that all these parameters need much more research [69]. However, several studies have highlighted the opposite effect for children in climate zone A, where the neutral temperature was higher than suggested by the different standards, especially during the summer season [95,148]. This may indicate that primary school children are better adapted to the thermal and environmental conditions of tropical climates [280].…”