A controlled experiment on people's disposition and thermal comfort

A person’s self-assessment of his/her own thermal sensitivity (i.e. thermal disposition) is likely to affect his/her thermal perception. The main objective of this work was to analyse people's disposition regarding their thermal perception under equivalent thermal conditions. Controlled experiments involving human subjects were performed in a climate chamber, where subjects were exposed to different thermal conditions. Results showed that subjects more sensitive to heat felt warmer under equivalent thermal conditions than those more sensitive to cold. Categorising people based on their thermal disposition may be useful to improve the design and use of indoor spaces and personalised conditioning systems.