Investigating thermal comfort and energy impact through microclimate monitoring- a citizen science approach

作者：P. Rajagopalan, M. Andamon, R. Paolini · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110526 · 被引用次数：29 · 研究领域：Environmental Science

Abstract The increasing frequency of extreme hot days has a considerable impact on health and energy. Heat stress related to high temperatures cause increased rates of mortality and morbidity, particularly amongst vulnerable populations such as those belonging to lower socio-economic groups. Most studies on heat related mortality and morbidity generally use temperatures from weather stations that do not consider the urban heat island (UHI) effect, leading to inaccurate predictions, particularly during heat waves. This study uses data collected by citizen scientists in predicting outdoor thermal comfort as well as indoor heat stress and peak cooling energy for low income housing in Australia. The results show that the outdoor Universal thermal climate index (UTCI) values estimated during hot afternoon ranged from 26 °C to 46 °C which equate to moderate to extreme heat stress. The indoor Discomfort index (DI) values calculated inside the living and bedrooms were below the heat stress limits (DI