Thermal Comfort of Heterogeneous and Dynamic Indoor Conditions - an Overview
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Thermal comfort of heterogeneous and dynamic indoor conditions - An overview Citation for published version (APA): Mishra, A. K., Loomans, M. G. L. C., & Hensen, J. L. M. (2016). Thermal comfort of heterogeneous and dynamic indoor conditions - An overview. Building and Environment, 2016(109), 82-100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2016.09.016 Document license: CC BY DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2016.09.016 Document status and date: Published: 15/11/2016 Document Version: Publisher’s PDF, also known as Version of Record (includes final page, issue and volume numbers) Please check the document version of this publication: • A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. 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If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement: www.tue.nl/taverne Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at: [email protected] providing details and we will investigate your claim. Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 Building and Environment 109 (2016) 82e100 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Building and Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/buildenv Thermal comfort of heterogeneous and dynamic indoor conditions d An overview * A.K. Mishra , M.G.L.C. Loomans, J.L.M. Hensen Department of Built Environment, Unit of Building Physics and Services, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands article info abstract Article history: The buildings sector, being a leading energy consumer, would need to lead in conservation efforts as well. Received 15 June 2016 There is a growing consensus that variability in indoor conditions can be acceptable to occupants, Received in revised form improve comfort perception, and lower building energy consumption. This work endeavours to scruti- 12 September 2016 nise and summarise studies that examined human thermal and comfort perception to such variations in Accepted 13 September 2016 the indoor environment: spatial transients, non-uniformities, and temperature drifts. We also briefly Available online 16 September 2016 discuss personalised comfort systems since they work on an occupant's micro-climate and create non- uniformities in the indoors. Perusal of works done on effect of non-thermal factors on thermal com- Keywords: e Thermal comfort fort, point to the need for synchronizing the overall indoor environment's quality in terms of decor, air e Thermal transients quality, lighting etc. to improve occupant thermal comfort. Essence of the overall discussions come out Temperature drifts to be that indoor thermal environment can be variable and still agreeable, implying existence of energy Personalised comfort saving avenues, hitherto precluded from earnest consideration. Temperature zones © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license Thermal non-uniformities (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 1. Introduction building energy and comfort. About 40% of our society's energy demands stem from buildings 1.1. Context and methodology [1,2]. It stands to reason that in any move towards a greener future, the buildings sector will have a major role to play. The IPCC One continuing conundrum of the built environment is that we Working Group III too concluded that buildings hold the potential live in the same houses, with unchanged expectations of thermal for maximum reduction of emissions in an economic fashion [3]. comfort, while the outdoors are undergoing staggering changes, be The attempted ‘greening’ of buildings must take into consideration it diurnal or seasonal. Can the same building enhance comfort for indoor comfort of the occupants involved. And comfort has a strong all outdoor conditions? Across such external variations, instead of correlation with health and productivity of the population [4].In keeping indoor thermal conditions constant, could it be healthier to this aspect, thermal comfort standards have a role to play and at harmonize with the natural patterns? It could definitely be more present they are in a transitional period with foreseeable further energy efficient. rapid modifications. An example of such transition, over the past Occupants appreciate a reasonable amount of variability in the decade, would be the introduction of adaptive comfort standards. indoor environment d related to the senses such as light, sound, Traditionally the thermal comfort standards had in mind me- and temperatures d since a completely uniform environment be- chanically conditioned buildings, with temperatures held within comes tedious by being devoid of considerable sensory stimula- narrow limits. Extrapolating these standards to low energy build- tions [5]. A more dynamic thermal environment (both spatial and ings, that rely on passive strategies for indoor comfort, does not temporal components), pushing the boundaries of comfort zones, provide the desired effect. Departing from the focus of near steady inculcating features of the natural outdoors, would be able to state conditions of mechanically conditioned buildings opens up provide occupants with the required thermal comfort, along with the avenues for reworking the standards towards altered realities of moments of thermal delight and positive stimulation. Such envi- ronments would also contribute to energy savings. This change in design philosophy is complementary to just employing higher ef- * Corresponding author. fi E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A.K. Mishra), [email protected] ciency HVAC systems and personalised control. In light of recent (M.G.L.C. Loomans), [email protected] (J.L.M. Hensen). developments at the world stage, focusing on even more ambitious http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2016.09.016 0360-1323/© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). A.K. Mishra et al. / Building and Environment 109 (2016) 82e100 83 goals for emission reductions [6], a heterogeneous and more flex- implications. This work also does not attempt to provide an over- ible comfort zone could be consequential by providing further view of thermal comfort research in general, which has been latitude for reducing building energy requirements. examined by many excellent reviews [7e9]. At the same time, we This work is an attempt to summarise works in the field of do not explore the field of thermophysiological models for thermal human thermal comfort, as related to different spatial and temporal comfort prediction, which has been analysed and summarised by transients and the consequent comfort implications. Fig. 1 gives an works such as [10e12]. impression of this work's layout, with thermal comfort of hetero- geneity at the centre, surrounded by the sub-topics deliberated 2. Inputs from current international standards upon and their perceived interconnections. Section 2 discusses inputs from current international standards d along with any 2.1. Comfort zones for indoor occupants under static and uniform supporting literature d regarding allowable variations and non- conditions uniformities in indoor environments and on those salient features of the standards that advocate a broadening of comfort zone. At 1.1 met, 0.1 m/s air velocity, ASHRAE Standard 55 recom- Starting with broad search parameters such as ‘human thermal mends comfort zones of ~20e24 C for winter clothing (1 clo) and comfort’ and ‘thermal sensation’, Section 3 summarises such works ~23.5e27 C for summer clothing (0.5 clo) [13] d a reasonably wide that involved human participants being exposed to dynamic or territory with explicitly acknowledged seasonal variations. Rec- non-uniform thermal environments, both under field and labora- ommendations from EN15251 and ISO7730 are of similar nature. tory conditions. Related literature on thermal sensation and com- Enhanced air speeds can stretch the summer limits to ~30 C. Since fort of local body parts are also summarised. We further discuss at typical indoor heating temperatures, air flow would just enhance some recent works on the concept of alliesthesia and what it im- heat loss from skin, convective heating is a lot less desirable and plies for comfort under heterogeneous situations. cannot extend winter comfort [14]. Since personalised comfort systems also tend to bring about A reduction of clothing resistance by 0.1 clo corresponds to an certain non-uniformities, their potential at extending comfort increase of 0.8 C in operative temperature and vice versa [13]. zones is also considered succinctly in Section 4. This section also Unlike other similar options (having fans, windows, blinds, radiant briefly digresses into literature regarding differences among occu- heaters etc.), flexibility in occupant clothing is probably the only pants in terms of thermal perception, effect of availability of true ‘0’ cost option. occupant control, and role of alliesthesia in personalising comfort.