Zhang and colleagues link air temperature and perceived indoor air quality in university classrooms; it seems likely that their findings are also relevant in other contexts. The researchers found that “Perceived air quality was reduced significantly as indoor temperature increased. . . . Higher outdoor air supply rate is recommended when indoor temperature rises. . . . The subjective evaluations collected during intervention experiments showed that perceived odor intensity by visitors upon entering the room increased significantly, meanwhile the satisfaction and acceptability of air quality reduced considerably at the indoor temperature of 27 °C than that at 24 °C. . . . the calculated CO2 emission rate by students increased by 0.54 L/h per person for every 1 °C rise in indoor temperature. Corresponding to the control target of indoor CO2 concentration of 1,000 parts per million by volume (ppmv), the outdoor air ventilation rate required to eliminate occupant-generated pollution needs to be increased by 0.25 L/s per person.”
Xiaojing Zhang, Caixia Zhao, Tianyang Zhang, Jingchao Xie, Jiaping Liu, and Nan Zhang. 2023. “Association of Indoor Temperature and Air Quality in Classrooms Based on Field and Intervention Measurements.” Building and Environment, vol. 229, 109925, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109925
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.