Abstract
The purpose of this study is to establish the influence that clothing and ambient temperature have on comfort and how this is affected by the skin fold thickness, nationality, acclimatisation and sex of the subject. Surveys carried out in both England (50 English students and 50 from tropical countries) and Japan (50 Japanese students) were used to investigate these factors. As a result of these surveys it was found that the preferred ambient temperature was lower with increasing clo values (a measure of the insulating effect of clothing) and higher with a decrease in skin fold thickness. No differences in the preferred ambient temperature and the clothing worn were found between females and males, and between overseas males of recent arrival and those of longer residence in England. Differences, however, were found between English students and Japanese students. High multiple correlation coefficients demonstrated a number of factors which influenced the individual differences in clothing and preferred ambient temperature. Finally, on the basis of the weight value derived, from the quantification theory, preferred ambient temperatures corresponding to 0.50, 0.75, and 1.00 clo were estimated respectively as 22.4, 20.1 and 18.3°C for English students and as 23.3, 21.0 and 19.2°C for the Japanese, in which the skin fold thickness was fixed in 12.65mm, the mean for all the subjects. Values for overseas students in England were identical to the temperatures preferred by English males after results were adjusted for skin fold thickness.