Air movement preferences observed in naturally ventilated buildings in humid subtropical climate zone in China |
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Authors: | Wei Yang Guoqiang Zhang |
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Institution: | (1) Key Lab of Building Safety and Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China;(2) College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, 410082, China; |
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Abstract: | Occupants’ preferences for air movement in naturally ventilated buildings have been extracted from a database of three thermal
comfort surveys conducted in the humid subtropical climate zone in China, during winter, spring, and summer seasons. The distribution
of draft sensation shows that only 25.7, 38.5, and 28.7% of the subjects in winter, spring, and summer, respectively, felt
that the available air movement was just right, suggesting that indoor air velocity may be a big problem in naturally ventilated
buildings in humid subtropical China. Air movement preferences show that 15.8, 61.3, and 80.6% of subjects in winter, spring,
and summer, respectively, wanted more air movement. Only a handful of subjects wanted less air movement than they were actually
experiencing in any season, suggesting that draft was not much of an issue for thermal comfort. Occupants’ preference for
air movement is strongly related to thermal sensation, showing that people want to control air movement as a means of improving
their comfort. The demand for less air movement under cool sensation is much smaller than the overwhelming demand for more
air movement when the sensation was warm. The above results indicate that air movement might have a significant influence
over the respondents’ comfort sensation and that people required a high level of air movement in order to be comfortable during
the summer season. Thus, one efficient way to improve the thermal environment in summer in humid subtropical China could be
to provide occupants with effective natural ventilation and allow personal control of the air movement. Our findings are also
applicable to other buildings, to encourage designers to provide air movement as a low energy cooling strategy and to ensure
that sufficient levels of air movement are available. |
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Keywords: | |
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