Impact of Ethnic differences on the design requirements for (personal) climate systems

气候控制系统旨在为用户提供热舒适，可以在从建筑到汽车的广泛应用中找到。舒适性是一项基本的设计特征，已被证明会影响工作场所的生产率，并影响车辆司机的警觉。在人体热舒适性领域的许多原始研究都是在欧洲和北美进行的(方格，1970)。在这种方法中，基于对这一问题的有限研究，没有考虑种族和地理差异。然而，最近在舒适性设计中引入了新的元素。一个是调整对区域气候的要求，另一个是在更大的建筑控制内引入个人气候控制选项，让建筑控制整体使用更少的能源。汽车空调系统也是个人控制系统，但目前是根据最糟糕的情况指定的，而且通常只基于西方用户的数据。更多地了解地理或种族差异对舒适度要求的可能影响，可能会使设计出更具体的气候控制系统，从而潜在地节省能源、资源以及对车辆重要的重量，即燃料。虽然方格模型拒绝考虑相关种族差异的存在，但我们实验室最近的研究强调了亚洲人和英国人之间的显著差异，无论是男性还是女性。在研究有太阳辐射和没有太阳辐射的汽车类环境中的首选温度的范例中，为了达到相同水平的热舒适而观察到高达5摄氏度的首选进风口温度，从而为车辆或建筑物设计真正舒适的热环境，重要的是了解族裔特征的影响，并确定是否需要或在节能的背景下，有机会满足具体的地理环境设计要求。对不同种族群体的热舒适要求的详细了解尚未得出。该项目将调查种族差异对热舒适性的影响，更具体地说，试图确定物理/生理/感知因素是否在这种差异中发挥作用。

Climate control systems, designed to provide thermal comfort to the user, can be found in a wide range of applications, from buildings to cars. Comfort is an essential design feature, which has been shown to affect productivity in the workplace, and vigilance in vehicle drivers. Much of the original research in the area of human thermal comfort was conducted in Europe and North America (Fanger, 1970). In this approach, ethnic and geographical differences are not considered, based on limited research on this matter. However, more recently new elements have been introduced in comfort design. One is to adjust requirements for the regional climate, while another is to introduce personal climate control options within the larger building control, allowing the building control overall to use less energy. Car climate systems are also personal control systems, but are currently specified based on worst case scenarios, and often based on western users' data only. More knowledge on possible influences of geographical or ethnic differences in comfort requirements may allow the design of more specific climate control systems, with potential savings in energy, resources and, important for vehicles, weight, i.e. fuel.While the Fanger model rejects the presence of relevant ethnic differences, recent studies in our lab have highlighted substantial differences between Asian and British groups, both in males and females. In a paradigm studying the preferred temperatures in a car-like environment with and without solar radiation differences in preferred air-inlet temperature of up to 5 degrees C were observed to achieve the same level of thermal comfort To design truly comfortable thermal environments for vehicles or buildings, it is important to understand the impact of ethnic characteristics and determine whether there is a need or, in the context of energy savings, an opportunity for specific geographical environmental design requirements. A detailed understanding of the thermal comfort requirements of different ethnic groups has not yet been derived. This project will investigate the effect of ethnic differences on thermal comfort and, more specifically, try to determine whether physical / physiological / perceptual factors play a role in the variation.