Sensitivity Analysis of the Effect of Current Mood States on the Thermal Sensation in Educational Buildings

Abstract

Adaptive thermal comfort is a model which considers behavioral and psychological adjustments apart from Fanger's Predicted Mean Vote (PMV)/Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD) method. In the literature, the differences between the PMV/PPD method and adaptive thermal comfort were mainly considered in aspects of behavioral adjustments in an environment. Conversely, limited studies related to psychological adjustments were considered in detail for thermal comfort. This study purposes to investigate the effects of current mood state subscales on thermal sensation of the occupants for the first time in the literature. To this aim, the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire is used to determine the mood state of the occupants with six different subscales: Anger, Confusion, Vigor, Tension, Depression, and Fatigue. The experiments were conducted in a university study hall in Ankara, Turkey, which is in warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb) according to Koppen-Geiger Climate Classification. The distributions of each subscale were examined via Anderson Darling and Shapiro-Wilk tests accordingly given responses from the occupants. The sensitivity analysis was applied to the six subscales of the POMS with Monte Carlo simulation method by considering the distributions of each subscale. The results revealed that the current mood state has a crucial effect on the thermal sensation of the occupants. The subscales of the Depression and Vigor were found as the most vital ones among the six subscales. Only the pure effects of the Vigor and Depression would change the thermal sensation of the occupants 0.31 and 0.30, respectively. The Confusion was determined as the least effective subscale to the thermal sensation of the occupants. Moreover, with the combination of all the six subscales, the thermal sensation might change up to 1.32. Findings in this study would help researchers to develop the personalized thermal comfort systems.