Comparison between qualitative and quantitative measurement in assessing thermal comfort in an elementary school

Syracuse, NY

We compare qualitative and quantitative measurements to assess an elementary school building’s thermal comfort. Quantitative measurements of the physical environment are useful but not sufficient, since different people respond differently in the same indoor environment. A qualitative survey of the school employees shows the thermal comfort level has a 3.73 out of 7 score and 40% of subjects rated it unsatisfactory, even though the temperature and humidity level are measured within the comfort range recommended by ASHERA 90.1 – 2004. This gap occurs because human metabolism is not taken into account in current design guidelines, even though there is a clear correlation between human metabolic level and perceived thermal comfort. The gap between design guidelines and occupants’ thermal comfort presents an opportunity to improve indoor environmental quality. School buildings are especially challenging because they have a mix of adult and child occupants with widely varying metabolic rates. Therefore, an elementary school was used as a case study to compare differences between quantitative and qualitative measurement. We conducted a series of simulations to compare the thermal comfort in relation to adult and children’s metabolism and their thermal responses. We demonstrate that the negligence of occupants’ metabolism can lead to inaccurate design guidelines for the physical environment’s thermal comfort. Our results could potentially improve design manuals to accommodate buildings with mixed occupants to maximize comfort levels.

https://surface.syr.edu/ibpc/2018/IE2/2