Evaluation methods and factors influencing the thermal comfort of children - A comprehensive literature review

Children's health and learning performance can be affected by indoor thermal environments. A better understanding of thermal comfort for children can help engineers design and operate indoor environments to meet children's thermal comfort needs. However, the most widely used thermal comfort models and standards have been established for adults, and their applicability to children is not well studied. This paper aims to fill the knowledge gaps and provide a comprehensive review of the existing research focusing on evaluation methods and the factors influencing children's thermal comfort. A total of 340 papers were retrieved with 88 relevant papers selected through screening. The results of the literature analysis show that simplicity and clarity, motivation, and appropriate rating scales should be considered when designing subjective surveys to investigate children's thermal comfort. It is evident that the comfort temperature for children was different from that of adults. There were significant differences between the actual thermal comfort experienced by children and the results obtained from existing thermal comfort models. This review emphasizes an urgent need to develop appropriate evaluation models and standards for children's thermal comfort based on children's characteristics (such as metabolic rate and limited behavioral adaptation), and attempts to guide adults and society to better-serve children by improving their thermal comfort.