This International Standard gives guidelines and specifies a standard test method for the assessment of thermal comfort in vehicles using human subjects. It is not restricted to any particular vehicle but provides the general principles that allow assessment and evaluation.
The standard applies to all vehicles including cars, buses, trucks, off-road vehicles, trains, aircraft, ships, submarines, crane cabins and similar spaces. It applies where people are enclosed inside of a vehicle and to those exposed to outside conditions. For those exposed to outside conditions, such as bicycles, motorcycles, sports cars and fork lift trucks without cabins, vehicle speed and weather conditions may dominate responses. The principles of assessment however will still apply.
The standard applies to both passengers and operators of vehicles where its application does not interfere with the safe operation of the vehicle.
The standard presents the principles of the assessment and evaluation of thermal comfort including the use of test methods and trials. It also presents subjective methods that can be used in assessment. The standard provides a test method for the assessment of thermal comfort in a vehicle environment. The method can be used to determine a measure of the performance of a vehicle for conditions of interest, in terms of whether it provides thermal comfort to people or not. This can be used in vehicle development and evaluation.
This standard is a basic ergonomics standard which can contribute to the development of standards
concerned with specific vehicles and products.
This standard only applies where ethical considerations and accepted practices involving human subjects, such as those provided in ISO 12894, have been carried out.