Thermal comfort of rural residents in a hot-humid area

The thermal comfort of rural residents in China is studied to improve their living conditions and safeguard agricultural development. The present study recruited 30 healthy young people (50% male and 50% female) from rural areas of the hot and humid region of China and exposed them to a wide range of temperatures (20-32 degrees C) and humidities (50% and 70%) in a climate chamber. Both the psychological and physiological responses were observed. The thermal neutral standard effective temperature (SET) was determined to be 26.8 degrees C and the 90% thermal acceptable SET range was 22.9-30.7 degrees C. Mean skin temperature and skin wetness were found to be good predictors for thermal comfort in the neutral-cool and neutral-warm conditions, respectively. When compared with the previous results from similar studies of urban participants living in naturally ventilated buildings, a significant divergence is found. Rural participants reported the same thermal sensation but felt more comfortable and acceptable under identical cool or warm conditions. Rural participants had the same neutral temperature, but a much wider acceptable temperature range. The reason for these differences between rural and urban people may be attributed to differences in local culture, expectations and environmental cognition.