Perceptions Of Thermal Comfort And Well Being In The Workplace

Providing a methodology for evaluating indoor thermal comfort with a focus on children, this book presents an in-depth examination of children’s perceptions of comfort. Divided into two sections, it first presents a history of thermal comfort, the human body and environmental parameters, common thermal comfort indexes, and guidelines for creating questionnaires to assess children’s perceptions of indoor thermal comfort. It then describes their understanding of the concepts of comfort and energy, and the factors that influence that perception. In this context, it takes into account the psychological and pedagogical aspects of thermal comfort judgment, as well as architectural and environmental characteristics and equips readers with the knowledge needed to effectively investigate children’s perspectives on environmental ergonomics. The research field of indoor thermal comfort adopts, on the one hand, physical parameter measurements and comfort indexes (e.g. Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) or adaptive comfort), and on the other, an ergonomic assessment in the form of questionnaires. However the latter can offer only limited insights into the issue of comfort, as children often use different terms than adults to convey their experience of thermal comfort. The books aims to address this lack of understanding with regard to children’s perceptions of indoor thermal comfort. The book is intended for HVAC engineers and researchers, architects and researchers interested in thermal comfort and the built environment. It also provides a useful resource for environmental psychologists, medical and cognitive researchers.

This book supports HVAC planners in reducing the cooling energy demand, improving the indoor environment and designing more cost-effective building concepts. High performance buildings have shown that it is possible to go clearly beyond the energy requirements of existing legislation and obtaining good thermal comfort. However, there is still a strong uncertainty in day-to-day practice due to the lack of legislative regulations for mixed-mode buildings which are neither only naturally ventilated nor fully air-conditioned, but use a mix of different low-energy cooling techniques. Based on the findings from monitoring campaigns (long-term measurements in combination with field studies on thermal comfort), simulation studies, and a comprehensive review on existing standards and guidelines, this book acts as a commonly accessible knowledge pool for passive and low-energy cooling techniques.

Looks at what is meant by thermal comfort in the workplace and what the law says. It gives guidance to employers on the steps they can take to ensure a comfortable temperature for their employees during hot and cold weather. It also suggests some standards that can be used and points the reader towards sources of further information and help. Deals with most indoor workplaces but does not cover working in extreme conditions, hot processes, humid conditions or work requiring personal protective clothing. Contents: What is thermal comfort? What can you do to ensure thermal comfort? Some simple ways to ensure thermal comfort in cold weather; What the law requires you, as an employer, to do; Where to find guides or standards on thermal comfort.

Even with today’s mobile technology, most work is still undertaken in a physical workplace. Today’s workplaces need to be healthy environments that minimize the risks of illnesses or injuries to occupants to compete in the marketplace. This necessitates the application of good ergonomics design principles to the creation of effective workplaces, and this is the focus of this book. This book will: · Focus on ergonomic design for better health and ergonomic design for better productivity · Presents environments that support new ways of working and alternative workplace strategies, as well as the impacts of new technologies · Covers the role of ergonomics design in creating sustainable workplaces · Includes ergonomics design for a wide variety of workplaces, from offices to hospitals, to hotels to vehicles, etc... · Shows the design principles on how to design and create a healthy and productive workplace The market lacks an ergonomics design book that covers the topics that this book will cover. This book summarizes design principles for practitioners, and applies them to the variety of workplace settings described in the book. No other book currently on the market does that.

Environmental psychology maintained its dual orientation to research and application and proceeded further toward integrating them. Researchers conducted hypothesis-testing studies in controlled setting and practitioners applied research findings in facility programming, design and post occupancy evaluation. The clearest integration appeared in environmental design research, natural setting to improve environmental design and to test scientific hypotheses. Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the interplay between individuals and their surroundings. The field defines the term environment broadly, encompassing natural environments, social settings, built environments, learning environments, and informational environments. Environmental psychology is a direct study of the relationship between an environment and how that environment affects its inhabitants. Specific aspects of this field work by identifying a problem and through the identification of said problem, discovering a solution. The solutions can aid in making society function better as a whole and create a wealth of knowledge about the inner workings of societies. This book will prove informative and useful to academics as well as laymen. This book deals with all the major aspects of environmental psychology. It traces historical perspective and scope of environmental psychology and provides the reader with the methodological and theoretical perspective of the field.