Evaluating thermal perception of different wall colors in workplaces using virtual reality

Abstract

People spend most of their time in their homes, workspaces, health care facilities, educational spaces, or even recreational ones. The research problem focuses on how their thermal comfort and sensation of colors will be affected contributing to a higher demand for heating and cooling which consume a massive amount of energy. Since walls are considered the largest area that people are exposed to in interior spaces, this study aims to investigate the effect of wall colors on users’ thermal perception and sensation. The methodology involves a comparative analysis of different scenarios of wall color conditions, accepting or rejecting the hue heat hypothesis. This was performed by testing the influence of two walls colors (red, blue), representing warm and cool colors respectively, with two indoor air temperatures (23–33 C) on participants’ thermal sensation and comfort in a virtual environment of a shared office room. The use of virtual environments allows them to perform the experiments easily and economically in controlled environments with less effort than applying them in real environments. The results showed that wall color could affect the thermal comfort perceived in different room temperatures, red color was more comfortable for subjects in cold environments while blue one was more comfortable in warm environments. Future work shall investigate a wider range of colors and temperatures to address design guidelines helping to optimize occupants’ thermal perception against their actual thermal conditions to minimize energy use.