ASHRAE hits back at “sexist” ac study
ASHRAE has hit back at the Maastricht University study suggesting that methods to determine thermal comfort are biased against women.
The study by Boris Kingma and Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt of Maastricht University has received wide media attention over the last few days. Most reports have accused air conditioning of being sexist in being designed to provide the ideal temperature for the “hot-bloodied” male – a temperature too low for women.
The research was critical of the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55, the generally-accepted thermal comfort standard. The standard specifies the combinations of indoor thermal environmental factors and personal factors that will produce thermal environmental conditions acceptable to a majority of the occupants within the space …