Multi-domain occupant comfort experimentation framework in different climate zones

拟议中的项目建立了康考迪亚大学和开罗美国大学的研究人员之间的合作，在不同的气候区同时进行多域居住者舒适度实验。这些实验将通过一系列可重复的实验来研究各种室内环境参数与感知居住者舒适度之间的相互关系，这些实验包括：1)测试彩色光对居住者热反应的影响；2)测试使用皮肤温度和心率变异性作为人类热感觉和舒适度预测指标的可行性。实验将涉及在每个地点招募的测试对象，这提供了一个独特的机会来调查环境背景和人口特征的影响，特别是使用来自全球南方较温暖气候的数据，这方面的调查相对较少。热反应将通过热感知问卷和生理测量（如皮肤温度和心率变异性）来评估。因此，本研究的结果将为科学界仍在研究的多领域乘员舒适度的复杂主题提供新的见解。它还将有助于申请人在国际能源署（IEA），建筑和社区能源（EBC），附件79中关于以居住者为中心的建筑设计和运营的研究，因此它将发展加拿大在该主题上的实力和领导地位。了解创造舒适和健康的室内环境的因素也将为加拿大带来巨大的好处，特别是加拿大人90%以上的时间都在室内度过，因此提高舒适度可以显著提高他们的幸福感和生产力。

The proposed project establishes a collaboration between researchers at Concordia University and the American University in Cairo to conduct simultaneous multi-domain occupant comfort experiments in different climate zones. These experiments will investigate the interrelationship between various indoor environmental parameters on perceived occupant comfort through a series of replicable experiments that entail 1) testing the influence of colored light on occupants' thermal responses, and 2) testing the feasibility of using skin temperature and heart rate variability as predictors for human thermal sensation and consequently comfort. Experiments will involve recruited test subjects in each location which provides a unique opportunity to investigate the influence of contextual settings and population characteristics, particularly using data from warmer climates in the global south which is relatively less investigated. Thermal response will be assessed using both thermal perception questionnaires and physiological measurements such as skin temperature, and heart rate variability. Therefore, outcomes of this research will provide new insights on the complex topic of multi-domain occupant comfort which is still being investigated within the scientific community. It will also contribute to the applicant's research within the International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy in Buildings and Communities (EBC), Annex 79 on occupant-centric building design and operations, thus it will develop Canadian strength and leadership on this topic. Understanding the factors that create a comfortable and healthy indoor environment will also provide tremendous benefits to Canada, especially as Canadians spend more than 90% of their time indoors, thus improving comfort can significantly increase their wellbeing and productivity.