A118 Thermal comfort older

A field survey of the expected desirable thermal environment for the older people

Brief:

We have investigated the indoor thermally comfortable environment for the older people; we examined the thermal acceptance of 384 older people of the age from 60 to 97 years at various thermal environmental conditions in 19 older people centres of Hong Kong. The results were compared to that of the younger residents in Hong Kong. A probable decay of one predicted mean vote (PMV) for every 25.3 years was reported for older people beyond age 60 years (p≤0.05), which indicated that the age group probably has a different expectation on the thermoneutrality environment as compared with the younger age groups. It was also noted that the expected PMV for thermoneutrality environment of older females was apparently higher than that for older males in the same age group.

Figure 1: PMV of respondents reported thermoneutrality nvironment (Source: Indoor and Built Environment 2009, 18:336-345)

Further information:

Wong LT, Fong KNK, Mui KW, Wong WWY, Lee LW, 2009. A field survey of the expected desirable thermal environment for the older people, Indoor and Built Environment 18(4) 336-345.