Thermal comfort in educational buildings: A review article

In modern societies people spend over 90% of their time indoors. Students spending more time at school than any other building except at home highlights the importance of providing comfortable indoor thermal conditions in these buildings. Thermal comfort since has been related to productivity and well-being and energy conservation in schools, has gained importance in recent years. This paper presents an overview of thermal comfort field surveys in educational buildings over the last five decades. The studies are reviewed in two sections; the first covering the field study methodologies including the objective and subjective surveys, and the second reviewing study results based on the climate zone, educational stage, and the applied thermal comfort approach. Confounding parameters have been discussed to outline priorities for the future research agenda in this field. Reviewed studies have assessed the thermal environment in classrooms compared to common thermal comfort standards. Most of the studies concluded that students׳ thermal preferences were not in the comfort range provided in the standards. Ventilation as an essential determinant of indoor air quality and thermal comfort has been highlighted in most studies. The wide disparity in thermal neutralities underlines the need for micro-level thermal comfort studies.