Physiological responses of the driver in a solar heated car cabin

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiological responses of the driver when they enter the vehicle cabin for the first time after the vehicle was put in parking slot. Eight healthy male students underwent tests in vehicle cabin that have been parked two hours without any shading. Immediately after they enter the cabin, they run one of the test conditions: 1. The control condition (CON) test, which was the test that all windows??? glass in the cabin were fully lowered and air conditioning (AC) system was OFF; 2. The condition where all windows closed and AC was set at the first speed level (AC-1); 3. The condition where all windows closed and AC was set at the second speed level (AC-2). As the result, the attempt to decrease the air temperature in the cabin by opening all the windows did not give a significant impact to the physiological responses. Conditioning the air temperature by turned ON the vehicle air conditioning would suppress mean skin temperature and heart rate but not the core body temperature. However, using the first or the second speed of the AC did not make any significant difference in the physiological responses of the volunteers.

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