A field study of thermal sensation and neutrality in free-running aged-care homes in Shanghai.

With the rapid growth of aged population in most countries of our world, researching the thermal perceptions and demands of these people to building thermal environments has become a hot topic. To analyze the variation of the older people’s thermal sensation and neutrality, a comprehensive field study had been conducted in 19 aged-care homes with 1040 subjects aged 70 and above involved from January 2014 to April 2017 in Shanghai, China. During the survey, environmental parameters and thermal perceptions were recorded simultaneously. The variations of thermal sensation and neutrality were analyzed throughout all seasons. The results showed older people’s thermal sensation correlated with operative temperature in a significant level, while age and gender showed no effect with thermal sensation. An adaptive comfort model was proposed based on Griffiths method, with daily neutral temperature varying from 12.4 °C to 29.7 °C for 3.8 °C to 29.3 °C range of outdoor temperature. The EN15251 and ASHRAE adaptive models were identified to be not accurate to predict older people’s neutral temperature. According to comparative studies, the older adults were regarded to have different thermal responses to indoor and outdoor thermal environment from that of Chinese non-older people. This study provides systematical analysis on the dynamic variations of Chinese older persons’ thermal sensation and neutrality across seasons, and the findings can be reliable references for the people who manage or design aged-care homes to create a comfortable thermal environment for older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]