HEATING THERMAL COMFORT IN HIGHLY AIR-TIGHT AND INSULATED HOUSE – VARIATION OF PERIPHERAL SKIN TEMPERATURE

Experiments using human subjects have been conducted to investigate the physiological andpsychological responses to two different heating methods, i.e. floor heating and air conditioner, in ahighly insulated house. This paper describes a study on the effects of the heating methods on skintemperature changes by investigating changes in skin temperature caused by thermal conditions,sexual differences in skin temperature change, the correlation between declared scores and drops inperipheral skin temperature using the experimental results. Subjects whose skin temperature differedby at least 6oC between the belly and the instep in all temperature conditions were grouped intoDropped, those who showed such a difference under some temperature conditions were grouped asPseudo dropped, and those who never showed a temperature difference of 6oC were grouped as Notdropped. There was no clear correlation between subjects of the Dropped or pseudo-dropped groupand their declaration for poor circulation. There was a clear sexual difference in Dropped orpseudo-dropped and Not-dropped grouping. Many females belonged to the Dropped orpseudo-dropped, suggesting a relationship with poor circulation.