Evaluating the perception of thermal environment in naturally ventilated schools in a warm and humid climate in Nigeria

Munonye, CC; Ji, Y

Abstract

Field study was conducted in naturally ventilated primary school buildings in a warm and humid environment in Imo State, Nigeria to determine the thermal comfort perception of young children (aged 7–12 years) and to understand the thermal conditions in the classrooms. The comfort temperature was investigated in two types of classroom buildings during the rainy and dry seasons from October 2017 to May 2018. Approximately 7050 completed valid questionnaires were collected from 330 young children repeatedly surveyed twice a day. The children answered comfort questions at the same time the indoor and outdoor thermal variables were being measured. Results indicated that the combined ‘open-space’ classrooms produced a neutral temperature of 28.8°C with comfort range, 25.2–32.3°C. The neutral temperature of the combined ‘enclosed-plan’ classrooms is 28.1°C with 25.8–30.5°C as the comfort range. The differences in the comfort perceptions may be attributed to the differences in the architectural characteristics of both categories of classroom buildings. High temperature tolerance was shown by the participating children in the study area. This article, therefore, suggests that installing air conditioning in primary schools in the warm humid environment in Nigeria may not be necessary as it could lead to unnecessary energy consumption and carbon emission.

Citation

Munonye, C., & Ji, Y. (2021). Evaluating the perception of thermal environment in naturally ventilated schools in a warm and humid climate in Nigeria. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 42(1), 5-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143624420911148

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 14, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Apr 16, 2020
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Apr 21, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 21, 2020
• Journal: Building Services Engineering Research and Technology
• Print ISSN: 0143-6244
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-0849
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 5-25
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0143624420911148
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0143624420911148
• Related Public URLs: https://journals-sagepub-com.salford.idm.oclc.org/home/bse