Analysis of student thermal perception evolution in a university classroom during class hour

Current comfort standards are often unable to accurately portray student requirements. To improve the thermal comfort in a university classroom, a better understanding of student thermal perception to temporal transitions in classroom is necessary. Our study tries to address this gap through a mixed methods approach, thermal comfort study in an undergraduate level classroom. Specific attention is payed to evaluating student thermal perception variation as the class hour progresses. Environmental measurements, in combination with survey, were performed during seven lecture hours and obtained input from 384 students. Results of the study showed that student thermal sensation vote (TSV) differs significantly during different phases of the class, possibly due to gradual adaptation. The results imply a strong role played by subjective perception. Overall, some lacunae in current systems are identified, along with directions of improvement.