USERS’ ASSESSMENT OF PERSONAL FANS IN A WARM OFFICE SPACE IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The use of personal fans allows improving thermal comfort and energy savings in warm office spaces. This is due to individual adjustment and extended indoor temperature acceptability. However, to achieve that, the usability of fans must be assured. Therefore, an experiment with 40 people of various age groups was carried out to assess four types of fans, one of which is an evaporative cooling device. The goal was to find out which criteria should be used for selecting a fan to implement in an office space. Results show that airflow sensation and speed adjustment are considered the most important, although, noise is also very important, and cost can be an eliminatory criterion. The evaporative device was the best rated even in a space with 70 to 80% relative humidity, as users considered it to have a smooth controllable airflow. The results highlight these aspects should be considered in the selection of a personal fan and could also drive the industry to improve fans design for increasing usability and expanding the use of these systems.