Human Thermal Environments

Human Thermal Environments is a branch of the discipline Ergonomics, concerned with the thermal comfort (i.e. whether a person feels too cold, hot, 'sticky' etc.) of human beings in any, but especially in their working environment. Convective, conductive, radiative and insulating properties of the human body and the environment in which it finds itself are all variables whose effects are closely considered in this science. The aim of the discipline is to manipulate these variables in the environment and/or the clothing of the individual to achieve 'thermal comfort', the state in which the individual is content with their perceived thermal state.

Laboratories at Loughborough University, led by Prof. K.C. Parsons, are currently among the leading research centres of the discipline in the UK.

This article will be expanded at a later date.