• myGriffith
    • Staff portal
    • Contact Us⌄
      • Future student enquiries 1800 677 728
      • Current student enquiries 1800 154 055
      • International enquiries +61 7 3735 6425
      • General enquiries 07 3735 7111
      • Online enquiries
      • Staff phonebook
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Griffith Research Online
    • Conference outputs
    • View Item
    • Home
    • Griffith Research Online
    • Conference outputs
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

  • All of Griffith Research Online
    • Communities & Collections
    • Authors
    • By Issue Date
    • Titles
  • This Collection
    • Authors
    • By Issue Date
    • Titles
  • Statistics

  • Most Popular Items
  • Statistics by Country
  • Most Popular Authors
  • Support

  • Contact us
  • FAQs
  • Admin login

  • Login
  • Dynamic Environment, Adaptive Comfort, and Cognitive Performance

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Zhang130183-Published.pdf (865.1Kb)
    File version
    Version of Record (VoR)
    Author(s)
    de Dear, Richard
    Zhang, Fan
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Zhang, Fan
    Year published
    2018
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Since the invention of airconditioning over 100 years ago a central research challenge has been to define the indoor environmental temperatures best suited for occupants. The first scientific approach to this question was framed in terms of optimising occupant thermal comfort, commonly expressed as a U-function, symmetrical around a single optimum temperature for any given combination of the remaining comfort parameters (ISO, 2005). The inescapable conclusion drawn from such logic in the minds of risk-averse design engineers is that the only strategy able to reliably deliver occupant comfort is HVAC applied to sealed-façade ...
    View more >
    Since the invention of airconditioning over 100 years ago a central research challenge has been to define the indoor environmental temperatures best suited for occupants. The first scientific approach to this question was framed in terms of optimising occupant thermal comfort, commonly expressed as a U-function, symmetrical around a single optimum temperature for any given combination of the remaining comfort parameters (ISO, 2005). The inescapable conclusion drawn from such logic in the minds of risk-averse design engineers is that the only strategy able to reliably deliver occupant comfort is HVAC applied to sealed-façade architecture. A rigorous scientific rebuttal of the “single temperature optimum” model of comfort came 30 years after PMV/PPD was first floated (e.g. de Dear and Brager, 1998; 2001). Known as the adaptive comfort model, a clear implication is that passive design solutions are capable of delivering comfortable internal environments across a broad swathe of climate zones, throughout most if not all of the year. But recently the “single temperature optimum” model has resurfaced, this time with its justification shifting away from the thermal comfort requirements of occupants towards their cognitive performance. Beyond the building science domain, in disciplines such as psychology and ergonomics, the prevailing wisdom regarding temperature effects on cognitive performance is an extended-U rather than an inverted U function. The gist of the model is that cognitive performance is relatively stable throughout the moderate temperature range, but it rapidly deteriorates at the boundaries of thermal acceptability where stress drains the performers’ attentional resources. The extended-U model has garnered broad acceptance across a range of disciplines with the notable exception of HVAC engineering and indoor air sciences. But the weight of research evidence tends to support the extended- rather than inverted-U model. In this paper the arguments regarding thermal effects on cognitive performance are critically evaluated.
    View less >
    Conference Title
    7th International Building Physics Conference: Preliminary Proceedings
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.14305/ibpc.2018.k01
    Copyright Statement
    © The Author(s) 2018. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a licence identical to this one.
    Subject
    Architectural science and technology
    Building not elsewhere classified
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/381135
    Collection
    • Conference outputs

    Footer

    Disclaimer

    • Privacy policy
    • Copyright matters
    • CRICOS Provider - 00233E
    • TEQSA: PRV12076

    Tagline

    • Gold Coast
    • Logan
    • Brisbane - Queensland, Australia
    First Peoples of Australia
    • Aboriginal
    • Torres Strait Islander