Thermal comfort is one of the most important aspects of the indoor environmental quality due to itseffects on well-being, people’s performance and building energy requirements. Its attainment is not aneasy task requiring advanced design and operation of building and HVAC systems, taking into accountall parameters involved. Even though thermal comfort fundamentals are consolidated topics for morethan forty years, often designers seem to ignore or apply them in a wrong way. Design input values fromstandards are often considered as universal values rather than recommended values to be used underspecific conditions. At operation level, only few variables are taken into account with unpredictable effectson the assessment of comfort indices. In this paper, the main criteria for the design and assessment ofthermal comfort are discussed in order to help building and HVAC systems designers and operators tonavigate the complex and varied world of standards in the field of thermal environment for improvingindoor environmental quality and energy saving. The examples discussed in the paper will also be usefulfor the standardization, leading to harmonized documents more readable for all users.
Thermal comfort: Design and assessment for energy saving
D'AMBROSIO, Francesca Romana;
2014-01-01
Abstract
Thermal comfort is one of the most important aspects of the indoor environmental quality due to itseffects on well-being, people’s performance and building energy requirements. Its attainment is not aneasy task requiring advanced design and operation of building and HVAC systems, taking into accountall parameters involved. Even though thermal comfort fundamentals are consolidated topics for morethan forty years, often designers seem to ignore or apply them in a wrong way. Design input values fromstandards are often considered as universal values rather than recommended values to be used underspecific conditions. At operation level, only few variables are taken into account with unpredictable effectson the assessment of comfort indices. In this paper, the main criteria for the design and assessment ofthermal comfort are discussed in order to help building and HVAC systems designers and operators tonavigate the complex and varied world of standards in the field of thermal environment for improvingindoor environmental quality and energy saving. The examples discussed in the paper will also be usefulfor the standardization, leading to harmonized documents more readable for all users.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
