Collective understanding of ASHRAE thermal sensation phrases among Arab students

Despite their widely spread application, thermal scales' behaviour is not always well understood, especially between non-native English subjects. Examining some translations implemented in recent Arabic studies revealed differences from the international Arabic version. This version, itself, is questioned as its formation and the dialect it considers are not obvious. Moreover, positive impressions were possibly associated with phrases outside the widely accepted range of comfort in the investigated translations. In this regard, two short questionnaires were distributed among Omani high school students to explore their collective understanding of ASHRAE thermal sensation phrases. In the first, the students were requested to translate the phrases into Arabic, order them, and identify (thermal comfort). The second was a multiple-choice questionnaire which questions were derived from the answers of the first. Analysing results revealed a variety in the translated phrases that ranged from 7 to 44, which may be related to the Arabic language features. Besides, there was a weak agreement between the students' translations and the internationally accepted version. Phrases like (slightly cool) and (slightly warm) were not clear for most students. Further research is recommended to explore the impact of using phrases like (cool and not acceptable) and (warm and not acceptable).