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Title: Thermal comfort evaluated for combinations of energy-efficient personal heating and cooling devices

Abstract

Personal comfort systems (PCS) have potential to fulfill building occupants' personal thermal comfort preferences with great efficiency. But to integrate them into building conditioning, there must be a broader selection of PCS devices available. Design guidance and standards are needed to assure that such devices provide high levels of comfort effectiveness and energy efficiency. This study addresses these needs. A suite of minimum-power PCS devices was built that target body parts significant to alliesthesia—a heated shoe insole, heated/cooled wristpad, small deskfan, and heated/cooled chair. They were tested in a climate chamber under cool and warm conditions using both thermal-manikin and human-subjects. Their efficiency at physically heating/cooling the body is high; the combined suite has a coefficient of performance (COP) of 3.6 for cooling and 0.88 for heating. The subjects' whole-body thermal acceptance and thermal comfort perception were improved by the devices in an additive manner; using the combined suite over 80% of people accepted ambient temperatures of 18°C and 29°C. The PCS ‘corrects’ the ambient temperature towards thermal neutrality by as much as 6.5 K cooling and 3.6 K heating, overcoming building occupants' typical interpersonal thermal differences and making possible large HVAC energy savings in buildings. The idea of temperaturemore » corrective power can be the basis of standards for PCS.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
OSTI Identifier:
1613635
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1548028
Grant/Contract Number:  
AR0000529
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Building and Environment
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 143; Journal ID: ISSN 0360-1323
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; thermal comfort; building energy saving; personal comfort system (PCS); local heating/cooling; heated and cooled chair; corrective power (CP)

Citation Formats

Luo, Maohui, Arens, Edward, Zhang, Hui, Ghahramani, Ali, and Wang, Zhe. Thermal comfort evaluated for combinations of energy-efficient personal heating and cooling devices. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.07.008.
Luo, Maohui, Arens, Edward, Zhang, Hui, Ghahramani, Ali, & Wang, Zhe. Thermal comfort evaluated for combinations of energy-efficient personal heating and cooling devices. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.07.008
Luo, Maohui, Arens, Edward, Zhang, Hui, Ghahramani, Ali, and Wang, Zhe. 2018. "Thermal comfort evaluated for combinations of energy-efficient personal heating and cooling devices". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.07.008. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1613635.
@article{osti_1613635,
title = {Thermal comfort evaluated for combinations of energy-efficient personal heating and cooling devices},
author = {Luo, Maohui and Arens, Edward and Zhang, Hui and Ghahramani, Ali and Wang, Zhe},
abstractNote = {Personal comfort systems (PCS) have potential to fulfill building occupants' personal thermal comfort preferences with great efficiency. But to integrate them into building conditioning, there must be a broader selection of PCS devices available. Design guidance and standards are needed to assure that such devices provide high levels of comfort effectiveness and energy efficiency. This study addresses these needs. A suite of minimum-power PCS devices was built that target body parts significant to alliesthesia—a heated shoe insole, heated/cooled wristpad, small deskfan, and heated/cooled chair. They were tested in a climate chamber under cool and warm conditions using both thermal-manikin and human-subjects. Their efficiency at physically heating/cooling the body is high; the combined suite has a coefficient of performance (COP) of 3.6 for cooling and 0.88 for heating. The subjects' whole-body thermal acceptance and thermal comfort perception were improved by the devices in an additive manner; using the combined suite over 80% of people accepted ambient temperatures of 18°C and 29°C. The PCS ‘corrects’ the ambient temperature towards thermal neutrality by as much as 6.5 K cooling and 3.6 K heating, overcoming building occupants' typical interpersonal thermal differences and making possible large HVAC energy savings in buildings. The idea of temperature corrective power can be the basis of standards for PCS.},
doi = {10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.07.008},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1613635}, journal = {Building and Environment},
issn = {0360-1323},
number = ,
volume = 143,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jul 11 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed Jul 11 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 80 works
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Works referencing / citing this record:

Numerical and experimental investigation of the effect of air conditioning duct on the room temperature distribution and energy efficiency
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Experimental comparison of thermal conditions in office rooms: Diffuse ceiling ventilation, chilled beam system, and chilled ceiling combined with mixing ventilation
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Implementation of demand-oriented ventilation with adjustable fan network
journal, January 2020