Study of thermal environment in relation to human comfort in production spaces of ready made garments factories in the Dhaka region

Abstract

The actual performance of a building sustains rational occupancy and use in terms of individual and organizational well-being, health and productivity. Poor building performance is a result of the conflict between different indoor environmental attributes like lighting, ventilation and thermal comfort. A thermally comfortable indoor environment is essential for the wellbeing of the occupants. As an energy deficient country Bangladesh, it is not viable to use artificial means here to ensure indoor environmental comfort. Bangladesh is a developing country. The economic development of the country depends firstly on agriculture and then on industry. Ready Made Garments (RMG) sector plays a pivotal role in its economy. A large population employed in this sector, especially at the production area. But the garment factories in Bangladesh have been heavily criticised over the last 30 years for the working environment in which employees have to work. The research work concentrates on the existing thermal conditions within the production spaces with respect to thermal comfort. The indoor environment affects several human responses, including thermal comfort, perceived air quality, sick building syndrome symptoms and performance in work. Among these, this specific study focuses on the correlation between thermal comfort and work productivity with a view to improve the workplace environment in production spaces of RMG factories. It also evaluates the effects of the environmental comfort factors (air temperature, relative humidity and air movement) on the physiological comfort of the workers. The implication of this study anticipates having a clear understanding on indoor environment of RMG factories in Bangladesh. So the determination of the environmental conditions that is perceived as comfortable by the workers in the production spaces is the primary concern. The study on thermal comfort extracts from the results of the field survey carried out with the workers in the production spaces where the environmental variables that relate to different thermal sensations were recorded over a period of time. This study also aims to set an outline for thermal comfort (required temperature levels along with other comfort factors i.e. humidity and wind speed) to attain comfortable conditions for the improvement of the workers’ work efficiency in production spaces.