Outdoor thermal benchmarks for the elderly and its application to the outdoor spaces design of nursing homes in Shanghai

Abstract

With China’s increasing aging, many older people in cities choose to live in nursing homes. However, previous research on nursing homes has concentrated mainly on the study of elderly-friendly design and indoor thermal comfort, paying little attention to the elderly’s thermal comfort in outdoor spaces. This study investigated older people’s thermal perceptions in six typical outdoor spaces at Q nursing home in Shanghai, aiming to establish a healthy and comfortable outdoor thermal environment for older people in nursing homes. The investigation utilized physical measurements, physiological measurements, and questionnaires to explore the correlations between outdoor thermal perceptions, thermal environment factors, and space enclosing degree. The Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) was chosen to assess the elderly’s outdoor thermal benchmarks in Shanghai. Based on the thermal benchmarks, optimal design strategies for nursing homes’ outdoor thermal environments were proposed. Results demonstrated that: 1) The elderly’s outdoor thermal sensation and thermal comfort were closely related. Air temperature and wind speed are the major influences on the elderly’s thermal perceptions. 2) The neutral PET, neutral PET range, acceptable PET range, and preferred PET of the elderly in Shanghai were identified as 18.3℃, 11.24 °C-25.26℃, 9.48 °C-28.4℃ and 20.9℃, respectively. 3) The elderly’s outdoor thermal sensation and the mean skin temperature are closely correlated with the building space’s enclosing degree and opening direction. Semi-open spaces are the most comfortable, and open spaces have the lowest comfort. 4) Optimum design strategies were proposed based on the natural and built environments, and the results provide design strategies for the outdoor thermal environments of nursing homes in regions of hot summer and cold winter.