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Thermal Comfort
Published in Pablo La Roche, Carbon-Neutral Architectural Design, 2017
In addition to personal and environmental factors, other contributing factors mostly affect the metabolic rate. Food and drink influence the amount of energy that must be dissipated. Acclimatization includes short-term physiological and long-term endocrine adjustments to climate. Body form and mass affect the metabolic rate. The heat production is proportional to the amount of body mass; more mass produces more heat and the heat dissipation is proportional to the body surface area. Thus, a person with a higher surface-to-volume ratio can dissipate more heat and has more tolerance to higher temperatures. Subcutaneous fat is an insulating layer. The elderly have narrower comfort ranges because their adjustment mechanisms are not working as efficiently, making it more important to provide them with an appropriate comfort zone.
Energy Efficient Heating
Published in Clive Beggs, Energy: Management, Supply and Conservation, 2010
The thermal comfort of building occupants can be affected by personal and environmental factors. Personal factors can be defined as those variables which are directly connected with the individual. These include: Activity: The higher the level of personal activity, the greater the heat output.Clothing: The greater the amount of clothing worn, the lower the heat loss.Age: The metabolic rate decreases with age.Gender: The resting metabolic rate of women is approximately 10% lower than that of men.Health: Illness affects the ability of the body to maintain its core temperature at 37.2°C.
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Published in Michael Hehenberger, Zhi Xia, Huanming Yang, Our Animal Connection, 2020
Michael Hehenberger, Zhi Xia, Huanming Yang
The metabolic rate or “speed of metabolism” is the number of calories one burns in a given amount of time. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is defined as the metabolic rate at rest (or when asleep). Exercise increases the metabolic rate, and so does the intake of proteins. For humans, the biggest exercise induced metabolic rate increase—up to five times—has been recorded for bike racers in competitions like the Tour de France. The Burmese python, however, is capable of increasing the metabolic rate by a factor of up to 44 after a heavy meal! Even among snakes, that is very impressive. By comparison, rattlesnakes only increase it eightfold.
Study on indoor thermal comfort of different age groups in winter in a rural area of China’s hot-summer and cold-winter region
Published in Science and Technology for the Built Environment, 2022
Jiahao Wan, Qinli Deng, Zeng Zhou, Zhigang Ren, Xiaofang Shan
According to the fitting lines, when TSV equals 0, the corresponding bedroom temperature of children, young people, middle-aged people and old people is 14.1 °C, 12.8 °C, 15.6 °C and 18.4 °C, respectively. It can be seen that the neutral temperature of each age group is low. It’s probably because the volunteers had lived in the local area for many years and had adapted to the cold climate in winter. Therefore, they had strong tolerance to low temperature. Among the four age groups, in a warm environment with the temperature above 19 °C, the sensitivity to heat is in the decreasing order of children, young people, middle-aged people and old people. It’s because people’s basal metabolic rate decreases with the increase of age. And in a cold environment with the temperature below 6 °C, the sensitivity to cold is in the decreasing order of old people, children, middle-aged people and young people. It’s because children’s thermal regulation system is not mature enough, thus their ability to maintain thermal stability is not as good as adults. Although children’s basal metabolic rate is high, their tolerance to the cold environment is still lower than that of young people and middle-aged people.
Personalized thermal comfort modeling through genetic algorithm
Published in Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 2021
Asimina Dimara, Christos-Nikolaos Anagnostopoulos, Stelios Krinidis, Dimitrios Tzovaras
The metabolic rate estimation is also a laborious factor to be considered. The ASHRAE Standard 55 (Ashrae 2004) defines a table for metabolic rates for typical indoor tasks. To exploit those tables occupants’ actions should be assumed which is rather inaccurate. Approaches utilizing ASHRAE tables for metabolic rate choose low-level activities which in fact exclude basic high-level activities like cleaning the house (Luo et al. 2018). Recent works estimate the metabolic rate for high-level activities (Zhang et al. 2020), but it is not feasible to perceive user’s activity without a feedback. Furthermore, there are portable and wearable metabolic measuring devices and wearable sensors that provide a precise evaluation of metabolic rate (Nižetić et al. 2020). However, following this technique would raise the cost of a Home Energy Management System (HEMS).
Evaluating the specifications of built-in accelerometers in smartphones on fall detection performance
Published in Instrumentation Science & Technology, 2018
Kuang-Hsuan Chen, Yu-Wei Hsu, Jing-Jung Yang, Fu-Shan Jaw
Among the potential risk factors in the daily lives of the elderly, falling is the most common, and it can result in severe consequences. With the aging process, decreases of physiological functions, such as muscle force, muscle endurance, and balance, result in poor balance and an abnormal gait, which contribute to the high risk of falling among the elderly.[2] Upon falling, the severe consequences caused by falling include head trauma and temporary loss of consciousness. More seriously, if a fall is not noticed immediately, it can lead to hypothermia and even death. Also, hip fractures are a common and serious consequence of falling, and they can reduce activity levels in the elderly. With low activity levels, metabolic rates decline and the elderly can become susceptible to cardiovascular diseases. Hence, to reduce injuries from falling, prompt detection of falls and immediate provision of medical care are essential.