Case Study Assessment of Local and General Thermal Comfort by Means of Local Skin Temperature

The temperature of human skin is determined by the human thermoregulatory system which reacts to changes in the thermal balance between a human body and the environment. For this reason, skin temperature can be used as the quickest predictor for the assessment of local comfort or discomfort. This paper presents the outcome of case study experiments carried out to determine which of the skin temperature measurement points (specified in accordance with the ISO 9886 standard) can be used to determine local and general thermal comfort. To this end, experiments were conducted using 14 volunteers who were asked to wear the following three types of clothing ensembles: winter clothing, summer clothing and underwear only (i.e. semi-nude). Thermal conditions were achieved using a climatic chamber over the temperature range between 15 and 35 oC. On the basis of the conducted experiments it was determined that the highest correlation between thermal sensation and skin temperature occurs for measurements on the forehead, chest and abdomen (R2>0.9). Moreover, the results provided the basis for deriving linear equations characterizing a relationship between thermal sensation responses and skin temperature. The results of these experiments will help in the setting for optimum performance of ventilation and air-conditioning systems.