Thermal sensation choices of residents at Hong Kong apartment buildings

This paper reports thermal sensations of residents exposed to their chosen thermal environment and compares with predictions made with the Fangeťs predicted mean vote (PMV) thermal comfort model. In this study, thermal sensation responses of 221 residents at 74 apartments in Hong Kong towards the exposed thermal environment at the resident choices were collected by face to face interviews. The thermal environmental conditions were attributed by an ambient air temperature between 17.5°C and 31.5°C, a radiant temperature between 16.8°C and 31.7°C, a relative humidity (RH) between 46% and 100%, and an air velocity between <0.05ms-1 and 0.75ms-1, respectively. The corresponding thermal acceptability was reported by a resident, who was assessed with a metabolic rate between 1 met and l.6 met and a clothing volume between 0.1 clo and 1 clo, using a 2-point Likert scale and an ASHRAE 7-point semantic differential scale for participant thermal vote (PTV). Thermally neutral operative temperature at the neutral PTV and the corresponding PMV were determined. The results were presented with example thermoneutrality zones for dwellers, RH against ambient air temperature, for desired comfort conditions by residents.