perception

The TAIL rating scheme for assessing the quality of Thermal, Acoustic, Indoor air, Luminous, and the overall environment was initially developed to assess indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in hotels and offices. To broaden the use of the TAIL rating scheme to other buildings, its applicability for schools was studied. Two additional parameters, i.e., reverberation time and nitrogen dioxide concentration, were included to account for the specificities of the building use and population.

The aim was to study how the cooling jet from the ceiling, with individual control over the airflow, is perceived and how it affects the thermal comfort in warm office environment. 32 undergraduate university students participated in the experiment. Two thermal conditions were tested: (1) no cooling jet and (2) adjustable cooling jet from the ceiling. Subjects were able to use a controller with seven different settings to adjust the airflow coming from the nozzles so that the target velocity varied from 0.3 m/s to 1.5 m/s. The cooling jet was directed into the upper body.

The effect of a cooling jet from ceiling on thermal comfort, perception and subjective performance in warm office environment (29.5 °C) was studied. Altogether, 29 participants (13 male and 16 female) participated. All participants were tested in both thermal conditions and the order of the thermal conditions was counterbalanced between the participants. During the experiment, participants filled questionnaires and performed computerised tasks. Using the cooling jet significantly improved the whole body and local thermal comfort.