Influence of transient conditions on thermal comfort evaluations: Field study in university buildings

Thermal comfort is directly associated with the user’s health, performance, and energy consumption, making it a focal point of attention over the years. The static model heavily relies on the thermally steady state to assess thermal comfort. However, thermal conditions in buildings are rarely steady...

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Main Authors: Keovathana Run, Franck Cévaër, Jean-François Dubé
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-02-01
Series:Case Studies in Thermal Engineering
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214157X24017684
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author Keovathana Run
Franck Cévaër
Jean-François Dubé
author_facet Keovathana Run
Franck Cévaër
Jean-François Dubé
author_sort Keovathana Run
collection DOAJ
description Thermal comfort is directly associated with the user’s health, performance, and energy consumption, making it a focal point of attention over the years. The static model heavily relies on the thermally steady state to assess thermal comfort. However, thermal conditions in buildings are rarely steady, particularly in university buildings where students move from one class to another after each session. While this issue has been discussed previously, those studies are lab-based experiments that lack realistic settings. Aiming to address this gap, this paper conducted a field study in the university buildings under Mediterranean weather conditions during the winter and summer. To create transient-state and steady-state datasets, random groups of participants completed questionnaire surveys at various time points. These data were used to compare with previous climate chamber studies on temporal changes and to evaluate Fanger’s model. The results revealed that students took less than 10 min to reach a thermally steady state with a mere 0.5 scale points difference in thermal sensation vote between the two states. Moreover, the difference between the thermal sensation vote and the predicted mean vote models was potentially due to the assumed parameters rather than the effect of different thermal states on the calculations. Nevertheless, no substantial difference was noted for the neutral and preferred temperatures between the two conditions. These findings suggested that, in field studies, data collected from short-term thermal experience performed reasonably well in estimating comfort temperatures. The calculations’ assumptions, however, remained a limitation of this paper.
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series Case Studies in Thermal Engineering
spelling doaj-art-b8b70bf7ff3b4189abc6624b270a7f562025-02-02T05:27:18ZengElsevierCase Studies in Thermal Engineering2214-157X2025-02-0166105737Influence of transient conditions on thermal comfort evaluations: Field study in university buildingsKeovathana Run0Franck Cévaër1Jean-François Dubé2Corresponding author.; LMGC, University of Montpellier, UMR CNRS 5508, cc048, Place E. Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier cedex 5, FranceLMGC, University of Montpellier, UMR CNRS 5508, cc048, Place E. Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier cedex 5, FranceLMGC, University of Montpellier, UMR CNRS 5508, cc048, Place E. Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier cedex 5, FranceThermal comfort is directly associated with the user’s health, performance, and energy consumption, making it a focal point of attention over the years. The static model heavily relies on the thermally steady state to assess thermal comfort. However, thermal conditions in buildings are rarely steady, particularly in university buildings where students move from one class to another after each session. While this issue has been discussed previously, those studies are lab-based experiments that lack realistic settings. Aiming to address this gap, this paper conducted a field study in the university buildings under Mediterranean weather conditions during the winter and summer. To create transient-state and steady-state datasets, random groups of participants completed questionnaire surveys at various time points. These data were used to compare with previous climate chamber studies on temporal changes and to evaluate Fanger’s model. The results revealed that students took less than 10 min to reach a thermally steady state with a mere 0.5 scale points difference in thermal sensation vote between the two states. Moreover, the difference between the thermal sensation vote and the predicted mean vote models was potentially due to the assumed parameters rather than the effect of different thermal states on the calculations. Nevertheless, no substantial difference was noted for the neutral and preferred temperatures between the two conditions. These findings suggested that, in field studies, data collected from short-term thermal experience performed reasonably well in estimating comfort temperatures. The calculations’ assumptions, however, remained a limitation of this paper.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214157X24017684School buildingsMediterranean weatherThermal comfortTransient conditionsRational model
spellingShingle Keovathana Run
Franck Cévaër
Jean-François Dubé
Influence of transient conditions on thermal comfort evaluations: Field study in university buildings
Case Studies in Thermal Engineering
School buildings
Mediterranean weather
Thermal comfort
Transient conditions
Rational model
title Influence of transient conditions on thermal comfort evaluations: Field study in university buildings
title_full Influence of transient conditions on thermal comfort evaluations: Field study in university buildings
title_fullStr Influence of transient conditions on thermal comfort evaluations: Field study in university buildings
title_full_unstemmed Influence of transient conditions on thermal comfort evaluations: Field study in university buildings
title_short Influence of transient conditions on thermal comfort evaluations: Field study in university buildings
title_sort influence of transient conditions on thermal comfort evaluations field study in university buildings
topic School buildings
Mediterranean weather
Thermal comfort
Transient conditions
Rational model
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214157X24017684
work_keys_str_mv AT keovathanarun influenceoftransientconditionsonthermalcomfortevaluationsfieldstudyinuniversitybuildings
AT franckcevaer influenceoftransientconditionsonthermalcomfortevaluationsfieldstudyinuniversitybuildings
AT jeanfrancoisdube influenceoftransientconditionsonthermalcomfortevaluationsfieldstudyinuniversitybuildings