Thermal comfort evaluation: a study in workplaces at the clothing industry in Brazil

Then main objective of this work is to create subsidies for an analysis of Predicted MeanVote (PMV) from ISO 7730 (1994), for thermal comfort evaluation in Brazilianworkplaces. The clothing industry in the city of Amparo, So Paulo State, was chosen forthe study. A survey among the workers was carried out through questionnaires, collectingdata about thermal sensation, clothing and workers activities. Dry and wet bulbtemperatures, globe temperatures and air speed were also measured, simultaneously to thequestionnaires. The Software Conforto 2.03 was used to estimate thermal resistance ofthe clothes, metabolic rates, mean radiant temperature, relative humidity and thecorrespondent PMV for the set of environmental and personal variables. A probit analysiswas also performed which allowed to identify the temperature of neutrality. By using theaverage values of environmental parameters and personal variables of the surveyedpopulation, the neutrality temperature was calculated through the PMV/PPD model. Inthis case the temperature of neutrality was 22,8 C, corresponding to 5% dissatisfiedpeople. The probit analysis showed nearly 22,5 C for this temperature, corresponding to16% dissatisfied