Thermal comfort in different classroom types in higher educational buildings

Jowkar, Mina; Rijal, Hom Bahadur; Brusey, James

Abstract

Thermal comfort in learning environments influences the students’ attention, concentration and learning productivity. Due to the impact of the thermal environment on students’ thermal comfort and consequently their productivity in line with the impact on energy consumption, this topic has attracted substantial attention among researchers in the recent years. This study aims to evaluate thermal comfort of the students in different classroom types in the UK higher learning environments. Thermal comfort zone, comfort temperature and thermal acceptance are evaluated under Free running, Cooling and Heating modes. Simultaneous environmental measurements and questionnaire survey were conducted in the classrooms under each mode. 2046 students participated in the surveys in a university building in Coventry, United Kingdom, between October 2017 and March 2018. Results present thermal comfort zone between 21°C and 25°C and comfort temperature of around 23°C in the classrooms under each operation mode. The research output helps to expand the existing environmental guidelines for higher educational buildings to have more reliable and energy efficient standards.

Citation

Jowkar, M., Rijal, H. B., & Brusey, J. (2019). Thermal comfort in different classroom types in higher educational buildings. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on: Comfort at the Extremes: Energy, Economy and Climate (865-876)

• Conference Name: Comfort At The Extremes (CATE) Conference, 2019
• Conference Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Start Date: Apr 10, 2019
• End Date: Apr 11, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Dec 19, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 19, 2019
• Deposit Date: Sep 29, 2022
• Pages: 865-876
• Book Title: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on: Comfort at the Extremes: Energy, Economy and Climate
• Keywords: Thermal comfort, Higher education buildings, Comfort temperature, Energy efficiency
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2926151