Winter Indoor Thermal Environment Status of Nursery Rooms in Workplace Daycare Centers in Jeju Island

제주지역 직장어린이집 보육실의 겨울철 실내온열환경 실태

This study was conducted to investigate the thermal environment status of nursery rooms in workplace daycare centers in Jeju and propose measures to improve their indoor physical thermal environment. For this purpose, measurements were performed in the winter indoor physical environment of 51 nursery rooms in 11 workplace daycare centers and a psychological evaluation survey on the thermal environment of nursery rooms was conducted for 70 nursery teachers. The investigation was carried out over 11 days in January 2017. The results are as follow. The average indoor temperature of the nursery rooms was $21.3^{\circ}C$($18.7-23.8^{\circ}C$) and the indoor temperatures of 47 nursery rooms (92.9%) were higher than the environmental hygiene management standard for domestic school facilities ($18-20^{\circ}C$). The average relative humidity was 33.9% (16.4-56.0%), and 37 nursery rooms (86.3%) showed a lower average relative humidity than the standard (40-70%). The average absolute humidity was $9.1g/m^3$ ($4.7-13.6g/m^3$), which was lower than the standard for preventing influenza ($10g/m^3$). When the indoor temperature and humidity of the nursery rooms were compared with international standards, it was found that 85% or more of the 51 nursery rooms maintained appropriate indoor temperatures, but 40-50% of the nursery rooms maintained a low humidity condition. Therefore, they need to pay attention to maintaining the appropriate humidity of the nursery room to keep the children healthy. The average indoor temperature of the nursery rooms showed a weak negative correlation with the average relative humidity. The indoor temperature had a significant effect on the relative humidity: a higher indoor temperature resulted in lower relative humidity. Regarding the fluctuations in the average indoor temperature of the nursery rooms during the day, in daycare centers that used floor heating, the indoor temperature gradually increased form the morning to the afternoon and tended to decrease during lunch time and the morning and afternoon snack times, due to ventilation. The daycare centers that used both floor heating and ceiling-type air conditioners showed a higher indoor temperature and greater fluctuations in temperature compared to the daycare centers that used floor heating only. In the survey results, the average value of the whole body thermal sensation was 3.0 (neutral): 32 respondents (62.7%) answered, "Neutral", Which was the largest number, followed by 21 respondents (30%) who answered, "Slightly hot" and 17 respondents (24.2%) who answered, "Slightly cold." Twenty-nine respondents answered, "Slightly dry," which was the largest number, followed by 28 respondents (54.9%) who answered, "Neutral" and 10 respondents (19.6%) who answered, "Dry." The total number of respondents who answered, "Slightly dry" or "Dry" was large at 39 (56.4%), which suggests the need for indoor environment management to prevent a low-humidity environment. To summarize the above results about the thermal environment of nursery rooms, as the indoor temperature increased, the relative humidity decreased. This suggests the effect of room temperature on the indoor relative humidity; however, frequent ventilations also greatly decrease the relative humidity. Therefore, the ventilation method and the usage of air conditioning systems need to be re-examined.