ESTUDO DE CONFORTO TÉRMICO EM SALAS DE AULAS CONDICIONADAS ARTIFICIALMENTE EM CLIMA QUENTE E ÚMIDO

Abstract

Thermal discomfort in schools can compromise the learning process and the health of students as well as teachers. One solution found for thermal comfort in school environments is the acquisition of airconditioning equipment, highlighting the action of the Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação (FNDE) to facilitate the purchase of artificial conditioning devices in public institutions attached to education. However, little is known about the outcome of artificial conditioning in these spaces. Due to the importance of researches in the environment built in schools, and the realization of these in the Brazilian Northeast, the present work aims to identify the thermal sensations and preferences of students (8 to 11 years old) in municipal air-conditioned schools in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba, in the winter period. For this, measurements of the environmental variables (air temperature, mean radiant temperature, relative humidity and air velocity) were carried out in artificially conditioned classrooms, applying, simultaneously, questionnaires adapted to the children, with four questions regarding sensation and thermal preference. Four schools were analyzed, whose classrooms obtained averages of air temperature between 26.31 ° C and 27.13 ° C; external temperature means between 25,8°C and 28,6°C; and averages of humidity between 64.85% and 71.24%. In these schools air temperatures varied between 25.26 ° C and 27.80 ° C. The answers of the 269 questionnaires applied indicate that in the four schools, 39.37% of the students indicated feelings of heat, 25.54% of cold sensation and 35.09% neutrality sensation; in addition, 14.4% of children showed preference for hotter, 29.9% preference for neutrality and 55.7% preference for cooler; and 7.8% of students voted for preference for air-conditioned environments, which may indicate a relationship between the use of these equipment and the sensation of thermal comfort.