C092 -- An Investigation into Gender and Clothing’s Effect on Indoor Thermal Comfort in Hot-Desert Climate: A Case Study in Kuwait

•In Kuwait, as in most countries with a typical dry desert climate, summer is long with a mean daily maximum temperature of 113 °F (45 °C).Centralized air-conditioning, which is deployed from the beginning of April to the end of October, can have a tremendous impact on the amountof electrical energy utilized to control the internal environment in buildings. The study considers four air-conditioned educational facilities inKuwait during the Fall of 2021 and offers statistical data on indoor environmental conditions from 325 individuals' thermal comfort perceptions58.77% of the total sample size were female students where 41.23% were male students, using a combination of physical measures and subjectivequestionnaires. This is compared against predicted thermal comfort using the well-known PMV model, with a focus on identification of anydifference in thermal comfort perceptions between males and females. Results show the operative temperature (OPT) satisfies all genders is between69.4 °F (20.86°C) to 71.7 °F (22.1°C). Also, results showed that Gender and type of clothing's have a significant relationship to thermalsensation of occupants in indoor environments. This study's findings should be incorporated into the design of educational building air-conditioningsystems. This knowledge can be utilized in the development of future energy-efficient design codes in Kuwait.