Field Study of thermal comfort and core body temperature between between males and females in Kaduna ,Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT Thermal comfort is a condition in which a person or persons expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment (ASRAE,2004).Two concerns lead to the present study. First, research concerning whether there is difference in thermal comfort of males and females has evoked numerous research. However the results have been inconsistent, with some results showing that there is a significant difference between thermal comfort of males and females while some did not find any significant difference. Second, literature review prior to this study sugest that most of the studies related to differences in thermal comfort between males and females have been mostly carried out in cold and temperate climates.Thus, motivated by the concerns mentioned here, a study into gender difference in the thermal comfort was conducted. The study involved literature review into gender difference in thermal comfort. Following the literature review, a field study was conducted during a school day in November 2021 using 80 samples(15-17years),they are from a private secondary school in Kaduna. At the field study, the thermal comfort and core body temperature of the subjects were measured at six indoor air temperature levels (27.29, 29.01.30.83, 32.8,34.66,35.190C). As well, during the field study, the samples dressed in similar clothing(clo) insulation values and they performed similar activities corresponding to 1.0 met. Analysis of data from the field study using Mann-Whitney U test and the independent sample t-test showed that there is no significant difference between the thermal comfort and core body temperature of males and females. In short, the result from this study suggests that there is no significant gender difference in thermal comfort and core body temperature provided that the males and females have similar clo and met values in the same environment. The practical implication and limitation of this study has been discussed.