Thermal comfort in the Fraschini theatre (Pavia, Italy): Correlation between data from questionnaires, measurements, and mathematical model

•Questionnaires and measured comfort data collected in an Italian theatre are compared.•A model previously developed by Authors is applied and results are compared to questionnaires.•Questionnaire data vary in a wider range of values than measured ones.•The questionnaire PMV scale needs to be refined to a 0.5 increment (resulting in 13 values).•Data calculated by the model developed by Authors show better agreement than measured ones when compared to questionnaires.

Data collected in an Italian ancient theatre were elaborated in order to compare subjective sensations evaluated by means of questionnaires to data measured in field. A simplified model, developed in a previous paper, was validated by using measured data and by comparing the results to data from questionnaires (PMVQ). Questionnaire data vary in a wider range of values than measured ones, confirming a higher variability in the personal sensation due to the possibility of giving only whole numbers. Therefore the questionnaire PMV scale needs to be refined to a 0.5 increment (resulting in 13 values).When comparing data calculated with the simplified model developed by the Authors in a previous work to data from questionnaires, more reliable results in the prediction of PMV were found with respect to measured data. Finally, people who voted 0 were about 54%, while about 88% are in the −1 to +1 range, showing a good behaviour of the theatre, nevertheless a wide range of variability for data from questionnaires corresponds to the same value of indoor air temperature. For this reason the PMV questionnaire scale needs to be refined to a 0.5 increment (resulting in 13 values).