Influence of Warm Exposure on Thermal Perceptions and Control Behaviors Over Indoor Environments

Current lab studies focus on forming a fixed environment for subjects and studying their thermal perceptions. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate occupants’ thermal perceptions and control behaviors over indoor environments. The obtained results showed that a too long or too short exposure urged subjects to more lower their ambient temperatures. With the warm exposure of 0 min without fans, i.e. subjects immediately lowered the indoor temperature when entering the experimental room, they had the largest desire to decrease indoor temperatures. Whether with or without fans, after being exposed to 30 °C for 10 min, subjects had the minimum requirements for lowering indoor temperatures. With the access to adjusting indoor temperatures, more than 90% of subjects changed indoor temperatures until they felt thermally neutral. And with fans, subjects finally chose higher temperatures. This study provides references for researches on occupants’ control behaviors and transient thermal comfort in real buildings.