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Thermal Comfort

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Personal Comfort Systems for Improving Indoor Thermal Comfort and Air Quality

Part of the book series: Indoor Environment and Sustainable Building ((IESB))

Abstract

This chapter introduces the definition of thermal comfort, human thermoregulation process, thermal comfort equation and thermal comfort standards. There are six basic factors influencing thermal comfort, including air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air velocity, vapor pressure, clothing level and metabolic rate. Human thermoregulation is a very complicated process and is achieved via autonomic (i.e., involuntary) and behavioral (i.e., voluntary) responses. Human thermal equilibrium is affected by the heat generated by human metabolism and the heat exchange between the human body and its environment. A few of thermal indices have been developed to assess thermal comfort in the building environment. These indices can be divided into two main categories: temperature indices (such as ET, ET*, SET, operative temperature) and sensation indices (PMV-PPD). The PMV-PPD, as the most well-known and widely used index, was established based on the Fanger’s thermal comfort equation. The PMV-PPD model has been a path breaking contribution to the theory of thermal comfort and to the evaluation of indoor thermal environments in buildings.

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Abbreviations

ADP:

Adenosine diphosphate

ANSI:

American National Standards Institute

ASHRAE:

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers

ATP:

Adenosine triphosphate

CEN:

European Committee for Standardization

EPBD:

Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

ET:

Effective Temperature

ET*:

New Effective Temperature

ISO:

International Organization for Standardization

MV:

Mean vote

PMV:

Predicted mean vote

PPD:

Predicted percentage of dissatisfied

RH:

Relative humidity

SET:

Standard Effective Temperature

E req :

Required evaporative cooling for heat balance

E max :

Maximal evaporative cooling from the environment

C :

Convective heat transfer

c :

Specific heat

E :

Evaporative heat transfer

H :

Heat transfer

K :

Conductive heat transfer

L :

Thermal load of the body

M :

Metabolic heat production

m :

Mass of the object or tissue

P v :

Partial water vapor pressure in ambient air

R :

Radiative heat transfer

RES :

Respiratory heat loss

S :

Heat storage

T :

Temperature

t a :

Air temperature

T comf :

Optimum temperature for comfort

T lim :

Limits of the acceptable temperature

t mrt :

Mean radiant temperature

T o :

Prevailing mean outdoor temperature

t op :

Operative temperature

t r :

Radiative temperature

T rm :

Exponentially weighted operating average of outdoor temperature

W :

External work

α :

Sensitivity coefficient

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

    Guangtao Fan & Yu Chen

  2. School of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

    Qihong Deng

Authors
  1. Guangtao Fan
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  2. Yu Chen
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  3. Qihong Deng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qihong Deng .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Faming Wang

  2. School of Energy and Safety Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin, China

    Bin Yang

  3. School of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

    Qihong Deng

  4. School of Mechanical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Maohui Luo

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

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Fan, G., Chen, Y., Deng, Q. (2023). Thermal Comfort. In: Wang, F., Yang, B., Deng, Q., Luo, M. (eds) Personal Comfort Systems for Improving Indoor Thermal Comfort and Air Quality. Indoor Environment and Sustainable Building. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0718-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0718-2_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-99-0717-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-99-0718-2

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