Thermal comfort in school buildings in the tropics.

In the mid 1990's the 'need' to mechanically air condition school buildings became a political issue in North Queensland. Research suggests that school children are susceptible to heat stress, acclimatisation or cultural factors aside. Cooling strategies are also desirable to protect capital investment in building fabric, resources and electronic equipment. Community expectations suggest that air conditioning in the tropics is a 'necessity' to maintain an acceptable 'standard of living'. Investigative Post-Occupancy Evaluations (POE) of a number of schools in the Townsville and Mt Isa region revealed:

• Varying teachers' responses to the existing thermal environment;
• Teachers generally considered that air conditioning is necessary;
• Management of the existing classroom thermal environment is frequently impaired bylack of maintenance or understanding (of passive principles), laziness or for other usage reasons.

School designers must recognise that it is not a teacher's role (or interest) to manage the thermal environment of a classroom and therefore should design school buildings so that human comfort conditions are easily and efficiently maintained through the variety of passive and active means available. Air conditioning is but one tool available to achieve thermal comfort.