Thermal diary: Connecting temperature history to indoor comfort

To explore the relationship between thermal history and indoor comfort, surveys and measurements were conducted in Seoul, Korea and Yokohama, Japan. Fifty-two subjects were recruited from university campuses in Seoul and Yokohama during the hot season in August 2002. To collect information regarding people's daily thermal history, background questions (a thermal diary) were completed by subjects during the 24 h prior to entering in a climate chamber. Subjects changed into uniform clothing ensembles and complete thermal diary questions just prior to entering the chamber which was pre-conditioned to 28 °C and 50% relative humidity. Subjects entered the chamber and completed a set of thermal comfort questions at 10-min intervals for 1 h. Thermal history, prior to the chamber experiment, influenced the thermal sensation in chamber. Though the physical conditions in the climate chamber were identical (28 °C, 50% rh), Yokohama subjects responded with cooler thermal sensations than Seoul subjects. These subjects experienced hotter weather conditions (than the Seoul subjects) and voted that they felt cooler than the Seoul subjects who experienced cooler temperatures prior to entering the chamber. It was also found that subjects who use air-conditioning at home responded with warmer thermal sensations than the subjects who did not use air-conditioning. These results indicate that there is a strong interaction and influence of our experience with outdoor weather and our indoor thermal comfort.