March 28, 2003—Research to determine the combination of conditions chosen by people when they must compromise between noise and temperature at different levels of discomfort has been approved for funding by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
ASHRAE approved funding totaling $575,383 for seven research projects in the areas of design tools, operation and maintenance tools, indoor air quality, comfort and health, refrigeration, environmentally safe materials and energy conservation at its 2003 Winter Meeting held Jan. 25-29.
Among them is 1128-TRP, Trade-Off Function for the Combined Effects of Noise and Temperature on Human Comfort and Performance. The investigators are Amy Musser, Ph.D., Lily Wang, Ph.D., and Dale Tiller, with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha, Neb. The project is expected to take 18 months to complete with ASHRAE contributing $86,736.
It is important for design engineers to know the effect of different factors of the indoor environment on people. This information can be used in allocating funds to provide optimal comfort for occupants.
Optimization of the indoor environment also is an important factor in determining construction and operating costs and energy usage in buildings, according to Musser.
