Abstract
Occupants’ preferences for air movement in naturally ventilated buildings have been extracted from a database of three thermal comfort surveys conducted in the humid subtropical climate zone in China, during winter, spring, and summer seasons. The distribution of draft sensation shows that only 25.7, 38.5, and 28.7% of the subjects in winter, spring, and summer, respectively, felt that the available air movement was just right, suggesting that indoor air velocity may be a big problem in naturally ventilated buildings in humid subtropical China. Air movement preferences show that 15.8, 61.3, and 80.6% of subjects in winter, spring, and summer, respectively, wanted more air movement. Only a handful of subjects wanted less air movement than they were actually experiencing in any season, suggesting that draft was not much of an issue for thermal comfort. Occupants’ preference for air movement is strongly related to thermal sensation, showing that people want to control air movement as a means of improving their comfort. The demand for less air movement under cool sensation is much smaller than the overwhelming demand for more air movement when the sensation was warm. The above results indicate that air movement might have a significant influence over the respondents’ comfort sensation and that people required a high level of air movement in order to be comfortable during the summer season. Thus, one efficient way to improve the thermal environment in summer in humid subtropical China could be to provide occupants with effective natural ventilation and allow personal control of the air movement. Our findings are also applicable to other buildings, to encourage designers to provide air movement as a low energy cooling strategy and to ensure that sufficient levels of air movement are available.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arens E, Xu T, Miura K, Zhang H, Fountain M, Bauman F (1998) A study of occupant cooling by personally controlled air movement. Energy Build 27:45–59. doi:10.1016/S0378-7788(97)00025-X
ASHRAE (1992) ASHRAE Standard 55-1992, thermal environmental conditions for human occupancy. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta
ASHRAE (2004) ASHRAE Standard 55–2004, thermal environmental conditions for human occupancy. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta
Baker N, Standeven M (1996) Thermal comfort for free-running buildings. Energy Build 23:175–182. doi:10.1016/0378-7788(95)00942-6
Brager GS, Paliaga G, de Dear RJ (2004) Operable windows, personal control, and occupant comfort. ASHRAE Trans 110:17–35
de Dear RJ (1998) A global database of thermal comfort field experiments. ASHRAE Trans 104:1141–1152
Fanger PO, Melikov AK, Hanzawa H, Ring J (1998) Air turbulence and sensation of draft. Energy Build 12:21–39. doi:10.1016/0378-7788(88)90053-9
Feng Y (2004) Thermal design standards for energy efficiency of residential buildings in hot summer/cold winter zones. Energy Build 36:1309–1312. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2003.08.003
Feriadi H, Wong NH (2004) Thermal comfort for naturally ventilated houses in Indonesia. Energy Build 36:614–626. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2004.01.011
Fountain M, Arens E (1993) Air movement and thermal comfort. ASHRAE J 35:26–30
Fountain M, Arens E, deDear RJ, Bauman F, Miura K (1994) Locally controlled air movement preferred in warm isothermal environments. ASHRAE Trans 100:937–952
ISO (1985) International standard 7726, thermal environments–specifications relating to appliances and methods for measuring physical characteristics of the environment. International Standards Organization, Geneva
Kimura K, Tanabe S (1993) Recommended air velocity against combinations of temperature and humidity for sedentary occupants in summer clothing, Proceedings of Indoor Air 1993. Helsinki, Finland, pp 61–66
Milne GR (1995) The energy implications of a climate-based indoor air temperature standard. In: Nicol F, Humphreys MA, Sykes O, Roaf S (eds) Standards for Thermal Comfort: Indoor Air Temperature Standards for the 21st Century. Spon, London, pp 182–189
Nicol F, Roaf S (1996) Pioneering new indoor temperature standards: the Pakistan project. Energy Build 23:169–174. doi:10.1016/0378-7788(95)00941-8
Raja LA, Nicol JF, McCartney KJ, Humphreys MA (2001) Thermal comfort: use of controls in naturally ventilated buildings. Energy Build 33:235–244. doi:10.1016/S0378-7788(00)00087-6
Tanabe S, Kimura K (1989) Importance of air movement for thermal comfort under hot and humid conditions, Proceedings of the Second ASHRAE Far East Conference on Air Conditioning in Hot Climates, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, pp. 95–103
Toftum J (2004) Air movement-good or bad? Indoor Air 14:40–45. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0668.2004.00271.x
Yang W, Zhang G (2008) Thermal comfort in naturally ventilated and air-conditioned buildings in humid subtropical climate zone in China. Int J Biometeorol 52:385–398. doi:10.1007/s00484-007-0133-4
Zhang H, Arens E, Fard SA, Huizenga C, Paliaga G, Brager G, Zagreus L (2007a) Air movement preferences observed in office buildings. Int J Biometeorol 51:349–360. doi:10.1007/s00484-006-0079-y
Zhang G, Zheng C, Yang W, Zhang Q, Moschandreas DJ (2007b) Thermal comfort investigation of naturally ventilated classrooms in a subtropical region. Indoor Built Environ 16:148–158. doi:10.1177/1420326X06076792
Acknowledgements
The work of this paper is financially supported by the National Key Technology R&D program of China (2006BAJ02A05, 2006BAJ04B04), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.50478055), Asia-Link Project of European Community [CN/Asia-Link/012 (93520)], and the Teaching and Research Award Program for Outstanding Young Teachers in Higher Education Institutions of MOE, PR China. The authors thank Mr. Guo Hongtao, Mr. Tangkui and Mr. Lu Rende for their assistance in the field survey work of this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, W., Zhang, G. Air movement preferences observed in naturally ventilated buildings in humid subtropical climate zone in China. Int J Biometeorol 53, 563–573 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-009-0246-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-009-0246-z