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Thermal Comfort

The document discusses factors that influence thermal comfort. It defines thermal comfort as a feeling of well-being or satisfaction with one's thermal environment. Thermal comfort is influenced by personal factors like metabolism and clothing, environmental factors like air temperature, mean radiant temperature, and relative humidity, and psychological factors like color and sound. The human comfort zone is described as between 20-27°C and 25-75% relative humidity.

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35 views

Thermal Comfort

The document discusses factors that influence thermal comfort. It defines thermal comfort as a feeling of well-being or satisfaction with one's thermal environment. Thermal comfort is influenced by personal factors like metabolism and clothing, environmental factors like air temperature, mean radiant temperature, and relative humidity, and psychological factors like color and sound. The human comfort zone is described as between 20-27°C and 25-75% relative humidity.

Uploaded by

HARICHARAN SP
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Anna University

School of Architecture and Planning

AR-8003:
Energy Efficient Architecture
Semester VI 2016-17

Ar.Niket Shah
What is the Thermal Comfort?
What is the Thermal Comfort?

A definition of Thermal comfort is “a feeling of well being” or “the state of mind


that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment”.

The more common experience of comfort is simply a lack of discomfort –


thermally, of being unconscious of how you are losing heat to your
environment.
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?

Personal
Metabolism, clothing, eating/drinking, etc,.

Environmental
Air temperature, surface temperature, air velocity, humidity, etc,.

Psychological
Colour, texture, sound, light, movement, aroma, etc,.
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?

Personal: Metabolic Rate

Metabolic rate is the level of transformation of chemical energy into heat and
mechanical work by metabolic activities within an organism, usually expressed
in terms of unit area of the total body surface.

Metabolic rate is expressed in met units, which are defined as follows:


1 met = 58.2 W/m² (18.4 Btu/h·ft²), which is equal to the energy produced per
unit surface area of an average person seated at rest. The surface area of an
average person is 1.8 m² (19 ft²).

0.7 Met Sleeping


1.0 Met Seated & Quiet Position
1.2 Met Standing Relaxed
1.4 Met Light Activities while standing
1.7 Met Walking
2.0 Met Heavy Lifting, etc,.
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?

Personal: Clothing

Clothing acts as an insulating layer and is particularly effective at retarding


radiation, convection and conduction.

In cold climate, we adjust our clothing to provide increased insulation.

In a hot & humid climate, our skin needs exposure to moving air to encourage
heat loss, yet needs protection from the suns radiant heat.

In hot & arid climate, our clothing may keep us from losing too much valuable
water while also performing the vital role of shading.
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?

Environmental: Air Temperature / Dry Bulb Temperature

The air temperature is the average temperature of the air surrounding the
occupant, with respect to location and time. Air temperature is measured with a
dry-bulb thermometer and for this reason it is also known as dry-Bulb
Temperature.
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?

Environmental: Mean Radiant Temperature

The radiant temperature is related to the amount of radiant heat transferred from a
surface, and it depends on the material‟s ability to absorb or emit heat, or
its emissivity.

The mean radiant temperature, depends on the temperatures and emissivities of


the surrounding surfaces as well as the view factor, or the amount of the surface
that is “seen” by the object. So the mean radiant temperature experienced by a
person in a room with the sunlight streaming in varies based on how much of the
body is „in the sun’.
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?

Environmental: Operative Temperature

Operative temperature attempts to combine the effects of air and mean radiant
temperatures into one metric. It is the average of the air dry-bulb temperature
and of the mean radiant temperature at the given place in a room.
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?

Environmental: Relative Humidity

Relative humidity is the ratio of the amount of water vapour in the air to the
amount of water vapour that the air could hold at the specific temperature and
pressure.
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?

Environmental: Wet Bulb Temperature

Wet Bulb Temperature is measured by a thermometer with a wet bulb rotated


rapidly in the air to cause evaporation of its moisture. It is a combined measure
of the air temperature and relative humidity.

Dry air causes faster evaporation and thus a wet bulb temperature that is lower
than the dry-bulb temperature.
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?

Environmental: Air Velocity

It is the average speed of the air to which the body is exposed, with respect to
location and time.

Some spaces might provide strongly nonuniform air velocity fields and
consequent skin heat losses that cannot be considered uniform. Therefore, the
designer shall decide the proper averaging, especially including air speeds
incident on unclothed body parts, that have greater cooling effect and/or
potential for local discomfort.
What factors influence Thermal Comfort?

Psychological : Colour, texture, sound, light, movement, aroma, etc,.

These factors aid in thermal comfort but are difficult to quantify.

Examples:

A fountain suggests coolness with the colour, sound and texture of the water.

Leaves swaying in the slightest of breeze suggests wind motion.

Cool fragrance of water on soil or flowers blossoming suggest times of the year.

The warm colour, the sounds, and the flickering light of a fireplace adds to the
warmth of a room.
How is heat transferred?

Conduction
Heat transfer via physical contact with an object that is cooler or warmer.
Dependent on Surface temperatures.

Convection
Heat flow via contact with air molucules moving against a surface.
Dependent on: Air Temperature, Air motion & humidity

Radiation
Transfer of heat from a warmer to a cooler surface that is „seen‟ but not touched.
Dependent on Surface temperature & orientation to the object

Evaporation
A liquid can evaporate only by removing large quantities of heat from the
surface it is leaving
Dependent on Humidity, air motion & air temperature.
What is the Human Comfort Zone?
What is the Human Comfort Zone?

Maximum Temperature: 20oC or 78oF


Minimum Temperature: 27oC or 80oF
Relative Humidity (RH): 25% - 75%
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
°C 28.8 30.5 32.5 34.3 36.8 36.9 35 34.3 33.9 31.8 29.6 28.5
Average high
(°F 83.8 86.9 90.5 93.7 98.2 98.4 95 93.7 93 89.2 85.3 83.3
°C 20.9 22 23.8 26.4 27.9 27.5 26.3 25.7 25.5 24.5 23 21.9
Average low
(°F -69.6 -71.6 -74.8 -79.5 -82.2 -81.5 -79.3 -78.3 -77.9 -76.1 -73.4 -71.4
Avg Relative % 73 72 70 69 62 57 64 66 72 77 78 77
Humidity

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