THERMAL EVALUATION OF A CHAIR WITH FANS AS AN INDIVIDUALLY CONTROLLED SYSTEM

It is difficult to satisfy all workers in an office with respect to thermal comfort by a total air conditioningsystem. An individually controlled system that can create a preferable thermal environment for eachoccupant is therefore needed. In the present study, a chair incorporating two fans under the seat andbehind the backrest of the chair to provide isothermal forced airflow to the occupant was developed.Experiments were conducted in a climate chamber during summer. Seven healthy college studentsparticipated as subjects. The occupant was allowed to freely control the two built-in fans by adjustingdials on the occupants desk. The room air temperatures were set at 26C, 28C, 30C, and 32C.At a room air temperature of 28C, the whole-body thermal sensations were near thermally neutral,regardless of the type of chair. At a room air temperature of 30C, the occupants were able to createacceptable thermal environments from the viewpoints of whole-body thermal sensation andacceptability by using the chairs with fans. At a room air temperature of 32C, the chairs tested in thepresent study were not able to provide acceptable thermal environments.