Influence of winter natural ventilation on thermal environment of university dormitories under central heating mode in severe cold regions of China

Abstract

The indoor thermal environment impacts people’s health, while it can be adjusted by natural ventilation. However, studies on the effects of winter natural ventilation on the thermal environment in severe cold regions are minimal. Through field measurements in university dormitories in winter in Shenyang, China, this study explored, under the central heating mode, the thermal environment differences in different orientations of the dormitory and its different indoor positions under natural ventilation and the influence of window opening area and duration on the thermal environment. The results show that under winter natural ventilation, the air temperature, mean radiation temperature, and adaptive predicted mean vote (APMV) of dormitories facing different orientations were mainly affected by the direct solar radiation reception. When the ventilation duration reached 15mins, with the ratio of window opening area to a ground area of 0.05, 0.11, and 0.16, the APMV decreased by about 0.35, 0.5, and 1, respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Indoor thermal environment
• natural ventilation
• field measurement
• central heating mode
• student dormitories
• severe cold regions

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the students from JangHo Architecture College at Northeast University for their help in the field measurements.

Author contributions

H.Z. and Z.L. contributed equally to the paper and should be regarded as co-first authors. H.Z. and Z.L. conceived the paper; H.Z. performed the field measurements; H.Z. analyzed the data and drafted the paper; Z.L. revised the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Training Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates [grant number 220244], the Fundamental Research Program of the Education Department of Liaoning Province [grant number LJKQZ2021006], the Liaoning Social Science Planning Fund Project [grant number L22CGL012] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number N2111001].