Thermal Comfort in the UK Higher Educational Buildings: The Influence of Thermal History on Students

Jowkar, Mina; Montazami, Azadeh

Abstract

Statistics regarding the number of international students in the UK higher educational buildings show an upward trend in the recent years. These students coming from different cultural and climatic backgrounds have various thermal perceptions inside the classrooms. According to the significant influence of thermal quality of learning environments on students’ productivity and wellbeing, it is essential to develop specific environmental guidelines for the UK higher educational buildings based on the students’ backgrounds. Developed standards not only can provide occupants’ thermal comfort in such multicultural spaces, but also can minimize energy consumption and running costs within the higher educational buildings in this country. This study evaluated the students’ thermal perception in three different types of learning environments including fifteen Naturally Ventilated lecture rooms, studios and PC Labs from three different buildings of Coventry University. Indoor air temperature, humidity level, air velocity and mean radiant temperature were monitored in different times of a day. A questionnaire survey was conducted on approximately 1000 undergraduate and postgraduate students at the same time of recording operative temperature. This study is completed based on thermal comfort votes of 650 students Results reveal the influence of short and long-term thermal history including climatic background, thermal condition of current accommodation and thermal adaptation to the UK weather on students’ thermal comfort perception inside a classroom. The outcome of this study can be applied to develop the reliable and practical guidelines for the multicultural higher educational buildings within the UK.

Citation

Jowkar, M., & Montazami, A. (2018). Thermal Comfort in the UK Higher Educational Buildings: The Influence of Thermal History on Students. In Proceedings of 10th Windsor Conference: Rethinking Comfort (623-633)

• Conference Name: Windsor Conference: Rethinking Thermal Comfort
• Conference Location: Windsor, United Kingdom
• Start Date: Apr 12, 2019
• End Date: Apr 15, 2019
• Acceptance Date: Feb 1, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Apr 10, 2018
• Publication Date: Apr 10, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 29, 2022
• Pages: 623-633
• Book Title: Proceedings of 10th Windsor Conference: Rethinking Comfort
• ISBN: 978-0-9928957-8-5
• Keywords: thermal comfort, higher educational buildings, classrooms, climatic background
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2926156
• Publisher URL: https://windsorconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/W18_PROCEEDINGS-compressed.pdf