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Definitions
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The health effects of excessive floor temperatures.
Part I &
Part
II
Thermal Environments
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Floor Temperatures

Humans appreciate floors that are above 66 ˚F in cooling and
below 84 ˚F in heating. When floors are conditioned within
this range most people who live or visit the home will enjoy
having their feet on the floor. (Adapted from ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55 -2004, Thermal
Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy) (Copyright 2004, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (www.ashrae.org). Reprinted by permission from ASHRAE Standard 55-2004. This material may not be copied nor distributed in either paper or digital form
without ASHRAE’s permission).
From ASHRAE Handbooks:
“The most extensive studies of the
influence of floor temperature on feet comfort were
performed by Olesen (1977a, 1977b), who, based on his own
experiments and reanalysis of the data from Nevins and
Flinner (1958), Nevins et al. (1964), and Nevins and
Feyerherm (1967), recorded the following results. For floors
occupied by people with bare feet (in swimming halls,
gymnasiums, dressing rooms, bathrooms, and bedrooms),
flooring material is important. Ranges for some typical
floor materials are as follows:
Textiles (rugs) 70 to 82˚F
Pine floor 72.5 to 82˚F
Oak floor 76 to 82˚F
Hard linoleum 75 to 82˚F
Concrete 79 to 83˚F
To save energy, flooring materials with
a low contact coefficient (cork, wood, carpets), radiant
heated floors, or floor heating systems can be used to
eliminate the desire for higher ambient temperatures caused
by cold feet. These recommendations should also be followed
in schools, where children often play directly on the floor.
For floors occupied by people with normal indoor footwear,
flooring material is insignificant. Olesen (1977b) found an
optimal temperature of 77˚F for sedentary and 73.5˚F for
standing or walking persons. At the optimal temperature, 6%
of the occupants felt warm or cold discomfort in the feet.
Figure 10 shows the relationship between floor temperature
and percentage of dissatisfied, combining data from
experiments with seated and standing subjects. In all
experiments, the subjects were in thermal neutrality; thus,
the percentage of dissatisfied is only related to the
discomfort due to cold or warm feet. No significant
difference in floor temperature was preferred by females and
males.”
Note: In addition to ASHRAE Standard 55, the following provide
guidance to floor temperatures:
Radiant Panel Associations Guidelines to Panel Heating
Canadian Standards Association B214, Hydronic Heating
Installation Standards
ISO 7730:2005 - Ergonomics
of the thermal environment -- Analytical determination and
interpretation of thermal comfort using calculation of the PMV
and PPD indices and local thermal comfort criteria
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