Case Study - Thermal Comfort Evaluations in Prayer Halls in two continents.

Field studies have been carried out in selected Prayer Halls to address the research questions namely the impact of air conditioning on comfort of women versus men as well as on general members versus older members of a congregation, who follow universally adopted standard proceedings, and hold prayer meetings every morning from 3.30 am to 5.30 am and every evening from around 7 pm to 9 pm.  Comfort evaluations were carried out in three cities - two of which are presented here. The two air conditioned centres involved are: Lisbon, Portugal and Vancouver, Canada, where temperature and humidity were recorded in August 2013. The outcomes, in each case, have provided valuable data that clearly demonstrates the impact of gender, age and clothing variations on Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD). The results have explained some of the key root causes of the complaints that have led to enhancements / upgrades of the respective air conditioning systems.