User response to indoor thermal environment in female high school buildings in Oman

Abstract

Thermal comfort has a regional nature as it is affected by people’s climatic and cultural background. Under the extreme climate of Oman, the absence of local standards combined with the lack of thermal comfort studies in educational buildings, and the relatively long-time students spend daily in classrooms, highlights the importance of conducting such studies. In this research, the indoor and outdoor measurements of air temperature (Ta), globe temperature (Tg), relative humidity (RH), and air velocity (AV) were combined with the findings of four questionnaires distributed among female school students to explore their responses to the classrooms' thermal environments. The findings indicated that around 66–83% of the students expressed satisfaction with the thermal conditions in their classrooms with around 61–79% feeling comfortable. The neutral temperature was computed as 24.9 ± 2.48°C applying Griffiths’ method and a slope of 0.5/K. The acceptability limits for satisfaction levels of 80% and 90% were 23.3–26.6°C and 23.9–25.9°C, respectively. The research findings provide information that may be used to manage how the classrooms are managed in relation to the use of air conditioning and window opening, as well as valuable information about how the students adjust their clothing to maintain thermal comfort.