Evaluation of thermal sensation among customers: Results from field investigations in underground malls during summer in Nanjing, China

Abstract Previous studies on thermal sensation have mainly focused on offices and residential buildings, but rarely on underground malls. In this paper, field studies on thermal environment in six underground malls were conducted in Nanjing, China, particularly from customer's perspective. The results showed that when indoor operative temperature ( T op ) was more than 26 °C, the customers' mean thermal sensation votes (TSV) were lower than PMV. It indicated that they may perceive the warmth to be less dramatic than PMV predicted in underground malls. When T op was below 24 °C, a higher percentage of customers desired a warmer indoor environment. Customers' thermal acceptability (TA) decreased significantly when relative humidity ( RH) increased from 65% to 75% (p RH ranging from 70% to 80%. The customers' duration time (DT) in malls were different, the mean TSV of customers with DT less than 1 h was significantly different from other customers' TSV (p