Abstract

GONZALEZ-CETZ, Maella; ANCONA-MARTINEZ, Ligia del Rosario  and  CANTO-CETINA, Raúl Ernesto. Thermal comfort in hospital wards in the hot and humid climate. Ing. invest. y tecnol. [online]. 2023, vol.24, n.1, e1930.  Epub May 25, 2023. ISSN 2594-0732.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fi.25940732e.2023.24.1.004.

There is scant evidence on thermal comfort studies carried out in hospital wards with natural ventilation in hot humid climates in the country, despite the fact that with its implementation, energy savings and all the benefits of natural ventilation could be achieved. The study was carried out according to ASHRAE Standard 55 2017 methodology in the naturally ventilated room of a public hospital in the Yucatán. In the study a total of 1043 questionnaires were collected from 1046 participants, healthy adults, over characteristic periods (dry, humid and fresh). The aim of the study was to determine the neutral temperature, for a comfort range between 80 % and 90 % of the visitant´s acceptability. In addition, to obtain the preferred temperature, and analyze if visitants agree with the thermal environment in the waiting room at the hospital with natural ventilation. Neutral temperatures were obtained by Griffiths’ method and through multinomial logistic regression being 26.89 °C and 26.52 °C, respectively. The comfort range found is between 21.74 °C and 29.87 °C. The obtained preferred temperature was about 21.79 °C using multinomial logistic regression. Although the globe temperatures (Tg) were found on average at 27.94 °C and the relative humidity was higher than 60 %, participants accepted that thermal environment, in this case globe temperature (Tg) became a good predictor for acceptability. It would be desirable to obtain more information on the thermal parameters in waiting rooms, in different shifts, as well as on the user’s satisfaction of the thermal environment, in order to increase energy efficiency and user´s comfort.

Keywords : Thermal comfort; adaptive approach; natural ventilation; hospitals; hot and humid climate.