Thermal comfort assessment of naturally ventilated public hospital wards in the tropics
Natural ventilation, which is a common method used in tropical climate countries, can provide a high rate of airflow to maintain good indoor air quality and thermal comfort. However, the use of natural ventilation alone as passive cooling strategy is insufficient to improve indoor thermal enviro...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
Elsevier Ltd.
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/38533/3/Thermal%20comfort%20assessment%20-%20Copy.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/38533/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360132321008763 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108480 |
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| Summary: | Natural ventilation, which is a common method used in tropical climate countries, can provide a high rate of
airflow to maintain good indoor air quality and thermal comfort. However, the use of natural ventilation alone as
passive cooling strategy is insufficient to improve indoor thermal environment. Thus, this study aims to deter�mine the existing thermal comfort conditions in a naturally ventilated public hospital ward by using three
methods: simulation works, objective measurements and field surveys. The combination of all these methods in
measuring thermal comfort is essential in acquiring the most accurate results and has yet to be implemented in
any public hospital in the tropics on the basis of the literature review conducted. The simulation results presented
that more than half of the total occupants in the ward feel discomfort, with a predicted mean vote (PMV) be�tween 1.0 and 1.6 and a predicted percentage of dissatisfied between 40% and 56%. On-site measurements
recorded the same PMV reading, indicating slightly warm and warm, on the basis of the ASHRAE Standard 55
assessment scale. By contrast, the results of the survey questionnaire showed a different perception of the oc�cupants, with 82% of the respondents voting in the range of warm to hot scale. The thermal conditions in the
naturally ventilated ward studied for two months in 2020 were found to be uncomfortable and required further
improvement. Knowledge of the climatic characteristics and the current state of the indoor thermal environment
will help the building owners strategise an appropriate bioclimatic design approach |
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