The selection Selecting the right of a thermal comfort model for establishing optimal indoor optimal hygrothermal conditions during the hot period has a major impact on energy consumption of Net Zero Energy Buildings in hot climates. The objective of this paper is to compare the influence of using different thermal comfort models for zero energy buildings in hot climates. The paper compares the...

Field experiments, conducted in 29 air-conditioned offices, used survey questionnaires and physical measurements to investigate workers’ subjective thermal responses and comfort perception. A total of 650 individuals participated in the field study. The thermal neutrality and thermal preference of subjects occurred at 25.6°C and 24.1°C respectively. Responses from those subjects suggest a comfo...

ASHRAE 55-2004 and ISO 7730 standards failed to predict actual comfort level and lead to oversize design of HVAC system. So proper thermal environment monitoring is an important subject to have right size of HVAC systems. A prototype thermal EM system has been developed. Thermal environment parameters such as: temperature, relative humidity, CO and CO2 are measured by using the developed system...

For this study, empirical data on the thermal comfort parameters (i.e. room space temperature, velocity and relative humidity) was collected for the computation of the PMV and PPD thermal comfort index for the three flat types. The study shows that wind ventilation has a great effect on the interior comfort condition. This is evident from the diurnal variations of PMV values. Majority of the da...

We present a novel, personalised thermal comfort model and a heating agent using this model to reduce energy consumption with minimal comfort loss. At present, heating agents typically use simple models of user comfort when deciding on a set point temperature for the heating or cooling system. These models however generally fail to adapt to an individual user’s preferences, resulting in poor pe...

In this paper, we address the challenge of predicting optimal comfort temperatures of individual users of a smart heating system. At present, such systems use simple models of user comfort when deciding on a set point temperature. These models generally fail to adapt to an individual user’s preferences, resulting in poor estimates of a user’s preferred temperature. To address this issue, we pro...

Evaluation of Various Turbulence Models in Predicting Airflow and 1 Turbulence in Enclosed Environments by CFD: Part-1: 2 Summary of Prevalent Turbulence Models 3 4 Zhiqiang Zhai Zhao Zhang Wei Zhang Qingyan Chen 5 Member ASHRAE Student Member ASHRAE Member ASHRAE Fellow ASHRAE 6 7 Air distributions in enclosed environments are crucial to thermal comfort and air quality. 8 Computational fluid d...