Filed Study on Human Thermal Comfort for the Elderly in Xi’an, China

Abstract

The growing tendency of population aging results in the increase of kinds of nursing facilities, and thus thermal comfort in built environment are getting more and more attention. To improve indoor thermal environment for the elderly is essential to a comfortable and healthy life, the key of which lies in scientific and accurate evaluation of thermal comfort for elderly. Field investigations and testing on thermal comfort for the elderly were conducted in Xi’an during winter, spring and summer, a typical city in cold climate zone, China. Both subjective questionnaire survey and objective on-site measurements were carried out, and a total of 835 valid questionnaires were obtained. Based on the analysis of the clothing insulation, thermal sensation, and thermal acceptability against the indoor temperature, and an adaptive comfort model was developed using linear regression. It is pointed out that the neutral temperature for elderly is 20.4 °C, the temperature ranges of 80 and 90% acceptability were 13.8–30.5 and 17.2–27.0 °C. The results of this study may be a useful reference when designing or managing thermal comfortable environment for the elderly in cold climate zone, China.