Analysis of thermal environment at a workplace: A case study in a jewelry shop

Abstract

The current paper presents the steps and conclusions of a case study about thermal Environment in the watchmaker workshop section of a jewellery store. The employee‘s tasks include fixing watches, changing their batteries, occasionally engraving. The main goal of this work is to perform a series of thermal environment related tests, study their results and draw conclusions about possible ways to correct the problems found. For this purpose, it is necessary to test the thermal stress, using the Wind Chill Index (WCI), and the thermal comfort, resorting to the PMV (Predicted Mean Vote)/PPD (Predicted Percent of Dissatisfied) index. It was also applied a survey to the employee, gathering his opinion on the subject. The results showed that the workplace in study does not represent a health risk to the worker, in other words there is no thermal stress, only discomfort.