Socially constructed or physiologically informed? Placing humans at the core of understanding cooling needs

Mazzone, Antonella; Khosla, Radhika

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2021.102088

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 129 publications

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“…While the UTCI provides an accurate reflection of the current weather conditions, thermal comfort or how individuals perceive those conditions, is a highly subjective experience that depends on individual physiology, acclimatization and culture 31 . Accordingly, heat–health studies have used various approaches to model heat stress.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat is associated with short-term increases in household food insecurity in 150 countries and this is mediated by income

Kroeger

2023

Nat Hum Behav

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Rising temperatures are expected to stall progress on food insecurity by reducing agricultural yields in the coming decades. But hot periods may also increase food insecurity within days when it gets too hot to work and earn an income, thus limiting households’ capability to purchase food. Here I exploit variations in heat levels during a household survey spanning 150 countries in a quasi-natural experiment to show that particularly hot weeks are associated with higher chances of food insecurity among households (0.5767, 95% confidence interval 0.2958–0.8576, t = 4.024, d.f. = 427,816, P < 0.001). This association is mediated by reductions in income and health for households and the effects are stronger in countries with lower incomes and more agricultural or precarious forms of employment. The results highlight the importance of labour market disruptions for food insecurity and suggest integration of these concerns into heat action plans and food programmes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat is associated with short-term increases in household food insecurity in 150 countries and this is mediated by income

Kroeger

2023

Nat Hum Behav

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“…Comfortable conditions are plotted in Figure 4b, which shows how comfort zones greatly differs from one household to another and how the PMV, in the figure always less than -0.5 and therefore indicating "slightly cool" to "cool" environment, cannot perfectly map the inhabitants' thermal sensations. These depend on factors that are not limited to temperature, humidity or the physical environmental parameters defined by the standards, but are also linked to the habits with which a person experiences his or her home [9]. Figure 5 shows the second limitation of OVS systems: the decreasing response rate over time.…”

Section: Ovs Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of occupant voting systems and smart home platforms for collecting thermal feedback in indoor environments

Callegaro,

Albatici

2023

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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The assessment of indoor thermal comfort is increasingly shifting from statistical to personalized models and therefore there is a growing interest in collecting feedback on occupants’ perceptions and preferences. Occupant Voting Systems (OVS) are emerging as a widely used tool in Post Occupancy Evaluations (POE) but the level of occupants’ interaction with these data collection devices, their scientific accuracy, and the integration of feedback data with building management systems, especially in residential buildings, still need to be further explored. This paper presents a study conducted on five dwellings, located in Italy, where smart home switches were used as feedback buttons to collect the thermal sensation of the occupants. These buttons were integrated into an open-source smart home platform, MOQA. The developed system is described in its technical features, highlighting the amount of information collected, the response rate and its interoperability with smart home systems. The results show that OVSs still have limitations in terms of occupant engagement and it is still rather complicated to correlate ratings with environmental variables. However, an easier integration, here described, with smart home systems would partially overcome these problems, turning the OVS into a useful tool for both users and research purposes.

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“…However, people in different climates and geographies have also adapted and acclimatized to a range of temperatures beyond this upper end. The relativeness of human thermal comfort is also determined by people's physical, health, and socioeconomic characteristics (64). For example, vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children (65), pregnant women, or people affected by long-term health conditions such as obesity and diabetes, or those with occupational heat exposure, have higher vulnerability to heat stress (66,67).…”

Section: Cooling Behaviors and Cultural Approaches To Coolingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Cooling in a Warming World: Technologies, Cultures, and Circularity

Khosla

Renaldi

Mazzone

et al. 2022

Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour.

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Cooling is fundamental to quality of life in a warming world, but its growth trajectory is leading to a substantial increase in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The world is currently locked into vapor-compression air conditioning as the aspirational means of staying cool, yet billions of people cannot access or afford this technology. Non–vapor compression technologies exist but have low Technological Readiness Levels. Important alternatives are passive cooling measures that reduce mechanical cooling requirements and often have long histories of local use. Equally, behavioral and cultural approaches to cooling play a vital role. Although policies for a circular economy for cooling, such as production and waste, recovery of refrigerants, and disposal of appliances, are in development, more efforts are needed across the cooling life cycle. This article discusses the knowledge base for sustainable cooling in the built environment and its significant, interconnected, and coordinated technical, social, economic, and policy approaches. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 47 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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Socially constructed or physiologically informed? Placing humans at the core of understanding cooling needs

Cited by 14 publications

References 129 publications

Heat is associated with short-term increases in household food insecurity in 150 countries and this is mediated by income

Heat is associated with short-term increases in household food insecurity in 150 countries and this is mediated by income

Integration of occupant voting systems and smart home platforms for collecting thermal feedback in indoor environments

Sustainable Cooling in a Warming World: Technologies, Cultures, and Circularity

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