The two primary functions of a vehicle climate control system are safety through de-icing and de-fogging windows, and occupant thermal comfort. However, vehicle air-conditioning systems can significantly impact fuel economy and tailpipe emissions of conventional and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and reduce electric vehicle (EV) range. In order to meet the new U. S. Supplemental Federal Test P...

Energy delivery to households can count up to 50% of primary energy consumption in the United States. As proactive response to this classical engineering sentiment, much efforts made to address this energy delivery process, however, have one one caveat in common: targeting at conditioning only air, despite it being a proxy of occupant comfort. What if we rethink the process of how we delivery e...

Thermal energy storage with phase change materials (PCMs) offers a high thermal storage density with a moderate temperature variation, and has attracted growing attention due to its important role in achieving energy conservation in buildings with thermal comfort. Various methods have been investigated by previous researchers to incorporate PCMs into the building structures, and it has been fou...

Most modern HVAC systems suffer from two intrinsic problems. First, inability to meet diverse comfort requirements of the occupants. Second, heat or cool an entire zone even when the zone is only partially occupied. Both issues can be mitigated by using personal comfort systems (PCS) which bridge the comfort gap between what is provided by a central HVAC system and the personal preferences of t...

Ensuring thermal comfort is an important goal in the operation of any office building. Often these buildings are therefore controlled according to the predicted mean vote (PMV) model which is also adopted as the ISO 7730 norm. This model predicts the mean thermal preferences of an average group of people that would satisfy the thermal comfort needs of about 80% of the occupants. It is derived f...

The results of an experimental investigation on the human thermal comfort inside the cabin of some Airbus A319 aircrafts during 14 short-haul domestic flights, linking various Italian cities, are presented and used to define a correlation among the predicted mean vote (PMV), a procedure which is commonly used to assess the thermal comfort in inhabited environments, and the equivalent temperatur...

A roof provides protection to be safe from direct sunlight. From the shelter, shadow alone is not expected. Durability, sustainability, less life cycle cost, and low maintenance cost are expected from a selected roof. The world has a thirst to have a best roof. No roof will fulfil the requirement of humanity since the climatic conditions are different. Hence the roof should be selected accordin...

BACKGROUND The ambulance milieu does not offer good thermal comfort to patients during the cold Swedish winters. Patients' exposure to cold temperatures combined with a cold ambulance mattress seems to be the major factor leading to an overall sensation of discomfort. There is little research on the effect of active heat delivered from underneath in ambulance care. Therefore, the aim of this st...

This paper will outline a research project currently being undertaken at The University of Melbourne aimed at developing a dynamic model of architectural comfort. Much of the energy used in buildings goes to providing suitable levels of environmental provision – light, heat and air – for building occupants. In terms of thermal performance, the levels have been determined principally through res...