Thermal adaptation of the elderly during summer in a hot humid area: Psychological, behavioral, and physiological responses

Abstract

Elderly demand for thermal comfort and energy conservation in senior citizen centers is increasing in an aging society. To reveal the thermal responses of the elderly in a warm summer environment, a field study involving experimental measurements was conducted in Chongqing, China.The study included 333 subjects in 17 residential buildings and 119 subjects in 6 elderly nursing homes; it showed that elderly persons as passive users of air conditioners preferred cooling by natural ventilation. The mean thermal sensation vote was lower than estimates obtained from the PMV model in warm environments. The physiological responses of eight elderly subjects (65 ± 3) were measured in a climate chamber at 18 °C and 34 °C and compared with those from eight college students (22 ± 1) and eight middle-aged subjects (50 ± 5). In this chamber, oral temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate of elderly and middle-aged persons were determined to be almost constant as the air temperature was changed to a hot/cold environment for 30 min, a different result from that of the young subjects. However, the skin temperature for all age groups showed variation with air temperature, suggesting skin temperature as an optimal monitoring parameter for the entire population.

The Influence of Physical Environmental Factors on Older Adults in Residential Care Facilities in Northeast China

“…The light environment also has an impact on the comfort of the indoor acoustic environment. Ultimately, our results demonstrate that these three factors influence each other and that balancing them could potentially improve the indoor comfort of older adults (Wu et al, 2019;Xiong et al, 2019;Yung et al, 2019).…”

Individual thermal comfort prediction using classification tree model based on physiological parameters and thermal history in winter

“…Besides that, thermal comfort/demand in relatively short-time climate chamber tests might also be different to that in "real-world" buildings where occupants stay a longer time. Other factors, such as occupation, age, culture, and so on, might also affect the conclusions (Wu et al, 2019a).…”

Comfortable floor temperatures for radiant floor heating in Southern China

“…由于人体冷暴露 经历越多, 偏好的地板温度也会越高 [29] , 如果在未来南 方冬季供暖大量普及造成人们热经历发生改变, 相应 的地板温度设定也可以适当调整. 本实验的结论也较 适用于南方青年人群体, 对于儿童、老年人和病人等 人群的特殊需求 [38] 可能会有所差异. 长期偏高或偏低 的地板温度范围也会影响室内热湿环境 [39] 和污染物分 布状态 [40] , 长期处于其中对人体健康的影响 [41] 目前还 没有得到科学的量化证据.…”