The Thermal Responses between Young Adults and Preschool Children in a Radiant Floor Heating Environment

The thermal comfort of preschool children was assumed to be similar to that of young adults, which may cause inaccuracy. This study tested and analyzed the thermal response characteristics of young adults and preschool children (4–6 years old) and the differences in thermal sensation and thermal physiology between the two groups of participants in a room with a radiant floor heating system using the difference analysis methods (the paired data t-test, the Mann–Whitney U test and the Kruskal–Wallis H test). Participants were divided into two groups, young adults and preschoolers, and were sat in each condition while wearing winter clothing with a thermal resistance of 1.02 clo. The results showed that when the indoor temperature changed, there was a significant difference in the local skin temperature of the calf between the two groups of participants (p < 0.05). Preschool children adapt to the thermal environment better than adults, and the difference in metabolic rate is one of the influencing factors. The overall thermal sensation with mean skin temperature of the different populations was linearly correlated; correlation coefficients were 0.944 and 0.932, respectively. The overall thermal sensation of the participants was linear with respect to the indoor operative temperature. Preschool children have a higher thermal sensitivity to temperature change than young adults under low-temperature radiant floor heating systems, indicating that children have different thermal awareness from adults. There were significant differences in preschoolers’ subjective assessments of thermal sensation when the predicted mean vote (PMV) model was used as the evaluation standard; the difference ranged from 0.77 to 2.33. Thus, the PMV-predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) model is not suitable for preschool children.

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