| Keywords |
Elderly ; Thermal environment ; Healthcare center ; Health ; Comfort |
| Abstract |
This study investigated the appropriate thermal conditions in the healthcare center for elderly through literature survey. Extensive literature survey on design cases and operation cases for healthcare center and hospital, physical/ mental response of elderly to thermal environment were performed. The results of the study can be summarized as follow: (1) Dry bulb temperature and relative humidity can be used as the thermal indicators while PMV is available as the subsidiary indicator. (2) During heating season, slightly warm indoor environment is appropriate. The health problem of elderly at lower temperature is obvious and less metabolic rate and the physical activity of elderly can be problematic during the heating season. However, it is difficult to define the upper limit for indoor temperature for the lack of related researches and investigation. In the conservative point of view, it is reasonable to adopt the conventional comfort range for healthy adults for elderly. |