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A new dynamic zOnal model with air-diffuser (DOMA) - Application to thermal comfort prediction

Journal Article · · Indoor + Built Environment
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]
  1. Department of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC, USA
  2. Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA

A new Dynamic zOnal Model with Air-diffuser (DOMA) was developed. Several case studies were investigated and tested to evaluate and validate this program using measurement data. This new model was integrated into a TRaNsient SYstems Simulation program library and coupled with the multi-zone thermal model. The DOMA/TRNSYS coupled model was then used to predict room temperature distribution over an entire day of a single-zone building. The results show that increasing the heating outputs of the electric floor system, for example, from 75 to 200 W/m2, would not effectively improve the indoor thermal comfort, since the thermostat will reach the set point first and then turn off the system before the room gets enough heat and reach a comfortable level. This indicates the importance of selecting an appropriate location and set point for the thermostat when using a floor heating system. This potential thermal comfort issue can only be identified through the two-node model with a dynamic zonal model rather than the conventional PMV model, which thus suggests that for optimizing indoor thermal comfort of a building equipped with a time-sensitive control strategy and/or HVAC system, the TSENS results obtained from the two-node model integrated with DOMA are more appropriate than PMVs.

Research Organization:
North Carolina A & T State Univ., Greensboro, NC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
DOE Contract Number:
FE0031747
OSTI ID:
1980946
Journal Information:
Indoor + Built Environment, Vol. 31, Issue 7; ISSN 1420-326X
Publisher:
SAGE - International Society of the Built Environment
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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