Air conditioning and the neutral temperature of the Indonesian university students

Abstract

Recent thermal comfort studies conducted in two private universities, namely Universitas Tarumanagara (Untar) and Universitas Mercu Buana (UMB) in Jakarta, Indonesia, showed a result that is fairly different from the previous thermal comfort studies carried out in this country. This study involved 90 students and collected 900 thermal votes. Students' comfort temperature in both universities was significantly lower than the previous comfort study conducted in Jakarta (1993), and it was almost similar compared to the previous study in Bandung with a lower outdoor temperature. As the study also collected information about the students about the use of air conditioning (AC) in their accommodations, it has revealed that nearly 100% students of Untar lived in AC accommodations, while only 50% students of UMB used AC in their accommodations. This paper discusses the whole study and draws some conclusions from it.