In this work we propose a framework for incorporating occupant feedback towards temperature control of multi-occupant spaces, and analyze it using singular perturbation theory. Such a system would typically have to accommodate occupants with different temperature preferences, and incorporate that with thermal correlation among multiple zones to obtain optimal control for minimization of occupan...

Despite the obvious importance of thermal comfort in the design of indoor environment, it has not been effectively integrated with design decision support tools. The reasons can be attributed in part to an absence of modular and flexible software architecture that facilitates dynamic data transfer between energy performance, lighting simulation, and thermal comfort modules. Research has shown t...

Thermal comfort has developed along two distinct models: deterministic and adaptive. We investigate the validity of these models against the increasingly urgent call to reduce building energy consumption. The air-conditioned office, predicated on the deterministic thermal comfort model, expends about 50% of its energy on air-conditioning. In a resource-constrained world, while acknowledging the...

In order to clarify the comfort temperature and to investigate the behavioral adaptation in Japanese houses, we have conducted a thermal comfort survey and occupant behavior survey in 30 living rooms during the hot and humid season in the Kanto region of Japan. We collected 3991 votes from 52 subjects. The comfort temperature was predicted by Griffiths’ method. They are analyzed according to hu...

Infrared-reflective (IRR) treatment of automotive glass has been shown to reduce air temperature in vehicle cabins, thereby increasing fuel economy and occupant comfort. Its effect on radiant heat, however, may augment these benefits. In this study, the hypothesis that radiant heat affects subjective comfort ratings in a vehicle was tested. IRR films were systematically applied to the driver-si...

Industrialization and increasing demand for the consumption of fossil fuels cause that energy becomes a strategic factor. Energy crisis and the emergence of modern architecture led designers to pay more attention to the important task of building's envelope. Building skins play an important role in building thermal behavior and reduce energy consumption. If Double Skin Facades properly designed...

To better understand the influence of urban green infrastructure (UGI) on outdoor human thermal comfort, a survey and physical measurements were performed at the campus of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, in spring and summer 2015. Three hundred eighty-nine respondents were interviewed in five different green spaces. We aimed to analyze people's thermal comfort perception and prefe...

This paper's main issue is a strong advocacy in favour of an a priori classification of thermal environments that can be really functional to comfort assessment: Class 1, environments where comfort conditions can be established (comfort-prone environments), and Class 2, environments where this is not practically feasible. The former, which are also identified here as 'thermally unconstrained' e...