The gender and age differences in the passengers’ thermal comfort during cooling and heating conditions in vehicles

The thermal physiological and psychological responses in vehicles, influenced by gender and age, play a crucial role in ensuring passengers' comfort. However, these differences have often been overlooked. This study aims to comprehensively examine passengers' thermal comfort and investigat...

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Published inPloS one Vol. 18; no. 11; p. e0294027
Main Authors Kwak, Jiyoung, Chun, Chungyoon, Park, Jun-Seok, Kim, Sanghun, Seo, Seokwon
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published San Francisco Public Library of Science 10.11.2023
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Age
Age differences
Biology and Life Sciences
Climate
Computer and Information Sciences
Cooling
Demographic aspects
Earth Sciences
Environmental conditions
Experiments
Gender
Heat
Heat transfer
Heating
Humidity
HVAC
Males
Medicine and Health Sciences
Numerical analysis
Passenger comfort
Passengers
Physical Sciences
Physiological aspects
Physiology
Radiation
Skin
Skin temperature
Social Sciences
Statistical analysis
Thermal comfort
Vehicles
South Korea
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Summary:The thermal physiological and psychological responses in vehicles, influenced by gender and age, play a crucial role in ensuring passengers' comfort. However, these differences have often been overlooked. This study aims to comprehensively examine passengers' thermal comfort and investigate gender and age disparities based on their physiological and psychological responses. Experiments were conducted inside a vehicle placed in a climate chamber under cooling and heating conditions, with the collected data subjected to statistical analysis. The findings reveal that males had significantly higher mean skin temperatures in cooling conditions and lower skin temperatures in heating conditions than females. However, overall thermal sensation and comfort did not significantly differ between genders. Interestingly, age-related differences were observed to a limited extent in both conditions. This study provides valuable insights into passengers' thermal responses in vehicles, considering the factors of gender and age, thereby contributing to a comprehensive understanding of thermal comfort in a vehicle environment.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
JSP, SK and SS also contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0294027