Differences between passive and active cooling systems in gender, physiological responses, thermal sensation and productivity

The objective of this research is to study the effects of nonuniform environmental conditions, which could occur due to application of low energy/exergy cooling systems, on human thermal comfort, physiological responses, and productivity. Furthermore, focus is on the differences between gender. This paper presents preliminary results obtained from experiments with four test subjects. To examine the influence of passive and active cooling systems a climate room setup with experimental subjects is used. Twenty subjects (10 male; 10 female; age: 1830;BMI: 1825) will participate in the experiments. So far, one male subject visited the climate room on six occasions: passive cooling through (1) mixing ventilation (To=26 °C), active cooling by convection through (2) mixing and (3) displacement ventilation, active cooling by radiation (4) through the ceiling and mixing ventilation (5) through the floor and mixing ventilation and (6) through the floor and displacement ventilation. Three female subjects visited the climate room on two occasions: (1) and (4). During the experiments both physiological responses and thermal sensation were measured. To assess the productivity and performance a ‘Remote Performance Measurement’ (RPM) method was used.