Thermal comfort assessment of large-scale hospitals in tropical climates: A case study of University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC)

• A large scale hospital is selected in tropical climate.
• Thermal comfort is evaluated by both objective and subjective measurements (PMV and TSV).
• The new neutral point shifts to +0.7 on ASHRAE scale.
• The neutral effective temperature based on TSV and PMV is 23.4 °C and 21.3 °C, respectively.
• The preferred effective temperature is 20.3 °C.

A field study on thermal comfort assessment was carried out in a large-scale hospital in a tropical climate. To evaluate thermal comfort, both subjective and objective measurements were performed. The data were collected from 10 various thermal zones of a hospital. In each zone the predicted mean vote (PMV) was calculated based on the Fanger theory. In addition, the thermal sensation vote (TSV) was calculated according to the survey to find the relationship between the Fanger model (PMV) and the occupants’ votes. In this study a strong relationship between PMV and TSV was found when R2 = 0.88. According to this correlation the neutrality point shifted to +0.7 on the seven-point ASHRAE scale. Moreover, the neutral effective temperature (ET*) was calculated based on the TSV and PMV of 23.4 °C and 21.3 °C, respectively, indicative of compatibility with the adaptive theory. The results also demonstrate that the preferred effective temperature according to subjective assessment in this case study is 20.2 °C. This analysis revealed that to the respondents of this study in 10 thermal zones the neutral temperature point is higher than global standards, while the preferred temperature is lower than standards and the neutrality point.