thermal comfort

This paper investigates the impact of ventilative cooling in residential buildings constructed from light-weight cross-laminated timber. Different temperature-controlled ventilative cooling concepts such as single sided ventilation, cross-ventilation and thermal stack based chimney ventilation concepts are simulated and compared in terms of impact on indoor temperature and robustness to external conditions such as the surroundings and the building orientation.

Due to climate change, Western Europe is experiencing a surge in cooling demand, leading to higher summer temperatures accompanied by longer and stronger heat waves, thereby intensifying the toll on our buildings. This signals the need for architects to design buildings that take advantage of passive technics to provide thermal comfort. In recent years, natural ventilation has become a widely used method for reducing energy consumption and expenses. However, the utilization of natural ventilation can be restricted due to heatwaves and the impacts of climate change.

Urban settings and climate change both impact energy use, thermal comfort and ventilation of buildings. This is more noticeable in hot urban areas where the urban heat island effect is more pronounced; also, in densely built urban areas where thermal comfort in naturally ventilated buildings is affected by changes in natural ventilation rates because of surrounding obstructions. In some cases, overshadowing might alleviate the impact.

Over time with thermal and energy regulations, buildings are increasingly insulated and airtight to control better the heat exchanges between the indoor and outdoor environments. The primary function of the mechanical ventilation system is to ensure healthy air by diluting odours and humidity with fresh air. However, in many situations, windows opening can be much more effective in terms of thermal comfort, air quality, or release heat loads due to a higher air change rate than the mechanical ventilation system itself.

Comfort modelling is a critical scientific barrier to reaching better thermal satisfaction in buildings. It allows designers to combine different cooling systems better to target comfortable low-energy buildings in hot and tropical climates. Increasing computer performance offers new perspectives to use more refined thermo-physiological models against traditional normative ones. Also, new types of coupled cooling alternatives arise and set a need for adequate comfort assessment models.

Productivity of workers is greatly affected by their comfort in the workplace. Research has shown that thermal comfort is one of the most influential parameters on worker productivity, and that the running costs of a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system could be up to ten times lower compared to productivity losses that would be incurred in a free-runing building.

It is evident from the existing research that poor thermal comfort can adversely affect the health and productivity of the occupants. The analysis of thermal comfort is even more significant in the health care environments where the occupants are potentially more vulnerable due to poor individual health (patients) and/or extended exposure to such conditions (staff). This study focuses on the evaluation of thermal comfort in hospitals’ recovery rooms considering both health care staff and patients.

Climate control of cabin aircraft is traditionally conditioned as a single unit by the environmental control system. Cabin temperature is controlled by the crew while passengers of the aircrafts have the control on the gaspers providing fresh air from the above head area. The small nozzles are difficult to reach and adjust to meet the passenger’s needs in terms of flow and direction. A more dedicated control over the near environment of each passenger can be beneficial in many situations.

Indoor environment quality has been researched extensively, with many countries adopting regulations to ensure that building occupants enjoy healthy working environments. In many small island developing states (SIDS), such as Mauritius, the population benefits from perfect weather conditions, but building design considerations often under-estimate the effects of outdoor weather conditions, heat and pollutant emission, illumination and noise, which worsen indoor environment.