Assessment of Temperature and Relative Humidity on Human Comfort at Enugu State University of Science and Technology (Esut) Campus, Nigeria

Abstract

The paper examined the effect of temperature and relative humidity on the human comfort level in the ESUT campus. The five minutes daily minimum and maximum temperature and relative humidity were used for the study from January 2012 to December 2019 using the Automatic Weather Station in ESUT. The minimum and maximum temperature and relative humidity were summed up to obtain daily, weekly and monthly mean temperature and relative humidity. Five hundred questionnaires were administered to students to obtain their response on the condition of their lectures halls during lecture hours and to find out the comfortable temperature zone based on the weather of the ESUT campus. The result shows that the air temperature at the lecture hall range from 24°C to 31°C, relative humidity was between 54% to 62%, while the air velocity was 0.15m/s. It indicates that temperatures in the lectures are outside the comfort temperature zone specified in the National Standard according to ASHRAE; 22.2°C to 26.7°C for educational buildings. The questionnaire survey shows that 60.2% of the total students rated the thermal comfort level in the lecture halls as NOT ACCEPTABLE. The Time Series analysis established the pattern of Temperature and Relative Humidity with a positive trend line equation of yt = 27.747+0.0239*t for temperature, and yt = 58.0404+1.85490*t for relative humidity. It implies that temperature, and RH, are expected to increase with the respective trend line equation. Therefore, there is a need for sustainable environmental planning to adapt to climate variability and change.