Center for the Built Environment

Subjects were exposed to sequences of partial-body cooling and warming over a period of three hours. Skin temperatures, core temperature, thermal sensation, and comfort responses were collected for nineteen local body parts, and for the whole body. This paper relates local thermal sensations and comfort to skin and core temperatures, and examines how the thermal sensation and comfort perceived for individual body parts affect thermal sensation and comfort perceived for the whole body. Overshoot in sensation and comfort is stronger when local body parts are cooled or warmed than when the whole body experiences a step-change.