A discussion on thermal comfort with reference to bath water temperature to deduce a midpoint of the thermal comfort temperature zone

This paper discusses the importance of humidity to thermal comfort temperatures. The author has presented an indirect method for determining the midpoint of the thermal comfort temperature by analysing preferred bath water temperatures. The preferred temperatures were taken in bath/shower rooms when humidity was 100%. In these conditions the humidity was considered a constant. The paper rigorously tests the data to find out the degree of dependability of this data. The data is found to be quite reliable and then concludes that 24.6 degreesC can be taken as the midpoint of the comfortable thermal zone in Malawi. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.