Questionnaire Design to Determine Children's Thermal Sensation, Preference and Acceptability in the Classroom

School buildings integrate three significant aspects of sustainability research - building performance, energy consumption and indoor environmental quality. However, the specific role of thermal comfort is less well understood. Thermal comfort studies have largely concentrated on adults, and typically compare measurement of physical environmental factors with qualitative assessments to ascertain the relationships between thermal sensation, comfort, preference and acceptability. Subjective rating scales are used to express the perceived level of warmth of an indoor environment and provide statistical approximations of the actual mean vote of the occupants and their thermal preferences. The ASHRAE 7-point scale has traditionally been employed to measure occupants' thermal sensation followed by the 3-point McIntyre preference scale. This paper presents techniques of questionnaire design for children aged between 11 and 12, and discusses appropriate rating scales to explore students' thermal perceptions of the classroom. Both the format and the content of the questionnaire must reflect the children's developmental and psychological status and must be readily understood by the target age group. The paper illustrates the outcomes of a pilot study conducted to test the effectiveness of a thermal comfort questionnaire specifically designed for children.