Conforto térmico em salas de aula localizados em clima quente e úmido : uma avaliação do limite inferior da zona de conforto.

Abstract

The thermal comfort approach, is straightly linked to society s quality of life expectation, that it s based on researches made inside climatized chambers and it s related to the thermal balance between the men and the environment. Among these studies, much has been questioned about the use of data obtained and represented on nomograms, in locations with different climatic characteristics which the study was made for. Therein, from an thermal evaluation made inside classrooms in Maceió/AL, this work was proposed to investigate the lower limit of the comfort zone to the hot and humid climate. The results were analysed based on the existing and common comfort zones used in the country. The work begins with an overview of the theme, then is presented the methodology, which describes and shows the used procedures to obtain and analyse analyze the data. The conclusion of the study shows that the percentage of users satisfied with the thermal environment to which they were submitted, was about 60%, higher than the percentage of dissatisfied users through the entire period analysed. However, the comfort resultant polygon obtained by the colleted data, based on the lower limit of comfort, differs from some comfort zones existing, being its minimal temperature about 21ºC. The differences among existing tolerances to air temperature, moisture, air movement, etc, may be an indicative of the adaptation of people to the climate, which suggests, therefore, the necessity of specifying the different comfort zones to each location.