An empirical study of occupants' evaluation of short-term combined thermal, visual, and acoustic indoor-environmental exposure

Abstract

Recently, more attention is being paid to human sensation and perception processes under multidomain indoor-environmental exposure situations. Despite the existing body of research in this area, many more studies must be conducted to elevate the level of our understanding of such processes. In this paper, we present such a study. Thereby, two identical small office units are assembled within a larger laboratory space. Thermal and visual conditions can be separately controlled in these two units. Furthermore, different acoustical conditions can be emulated in the larger laboratory space that houses the two small office units. During the experiments, participants occupy these offices and are exposed to a number of different combinations of indoor-environmental (thermal, visual, and auditory) factors. A key query thereby is as follows: Are identical thermal conditions evaluated differently given interference attributable to other exposure variables (e.g., glare, noise). The paper presents the research design and the results.