Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the characteristics of the thermal-physiological and psychological reactions in old people at the summer indoor climate, and to study the influences of the reactions by aging level. The experiments are conducted in a climate chamber, using 19 to 80-year-old male and female subjects wearing summer cloths (0.4clo) sit on a chair for 80 minutes including 60 minutes of air flow exposure. The combination of ambient temperatures and air velocities used are 28°C and 0.4m/s, 32°C and 1.2m/s, respectively. At the same environment, the mean skin temperatures of old subjects (over 60 years old) are lower than those of young (under 40 years old) and middle aged (from 40 to 60 years old) subjects in mean average of 0.2-0.8°C. The old subjects feel cooler and more comfortable than young or middle aged subjects. The drop in skin temperature of the chest becomes greater with advancing age. On the contrary, at the shin the drop becomes smaller. This indicates that the old people decrease in ability to control the skin temperature of cutaneous vasoconstriction of their extremities.
