Comparison between thermal comfort predictive models and subjective responses in Italian university classrooms

This work is focused on the evaluation of indoor thermal quality and shows some results of awider field study in university classrooms. The field study was conducted through physicalobservations and questionnaires, performed at the same time during the regular lesson time,in a period just before the start of the heating season. The predictions of dissatisfiedoccupants, based both on Fangers heat balance model and on an adaptive approach, werecompared to each other. The subjective survey investigated the thermal acceptability, thethermal preference and the thermal sensation, asking students to assess their comfort onsubjective scales. The calculated predicted votes were compared to the observed subjectiveresponses. Moreover, the subjective mean votes were compared to the thermal environmentperceptions in terms of acceptability and preference. The obtained results give a contributionto the enrichment of knowledge about thermal subjective responses in classrooms.