For testing different engineering solutions for energy-efficient buildings, a low-energy building was built at the University of Tokyo as a pilot project. In this building, a radiant heating/cooling ceiling panel system is used. This study aims to not only clarify the system performance but also to share our experience and results for them to serve as a reference for other similar projects. Here, the system performance in relation to its heating/cooling capacity and thermal comfort has been evaluated.

This paper analyses responses of ninety-nine students to a design brief for a public building in different regions of China. The research determined the level of understanding and skills development in students who will be the next generation of building designers, procurers and developers. The students were asked to design in a bioclimatic fashion and therefore to consider the building to be as free running as possible, and thus supportive of adaptive comfort principles.

The need for zero carbon buildings is changing the trial-and-error process that Architectural design has traditionally employed towards a system that allows wider analysis capacity at the conceptual stage. By visualizing design as a “Black Box” where the composition variable B can be cleared from knowing the stimuli S and the desired response R; optimal solutions arise to the surface.

In this work is analyzed the improvement of comfort conditions using confluent jets ventilation located near the floor level in front to the occupants in an experimental chamber. In this study are evaluated the thermal comfort, the local thermal discomfort and the air quality levels. The thermal comfort level is evaluated using the multi-nodal human thermal comfort numerical model, while the local thermal discomfort and the air quality levels are evaluated by the computational fluid dynamics numerical model.

This survey was designed to investigate university student rooms to realize energy savings related to thermal control use and the relations among thermal sensation, clothing insulation, and outdoor air temperature in pre-cooling and post-cooling seasons. Results revealed the following: 1) Phase shifts to the outdoor air temperature mutually differ in pre-cooling and post-cooling seasons. 2) For neutral temperatures, although the effect of pre-cooling makes the act of opening a window less likely, that is not true in the post-cooling season.

Increasing personal comfort by heating office building occupants locally means that the lower setpoint for space heating. Less energy will be used when the total energy demand from all individual comfort systems together is lower than the energy saved by lowering the setpoint. The energy saving potential is dependent on the specific characteristics of the individual heating. The important performance characteristics are the energy used per unit of mitigated discomfort and the maximum discomfort that can be compensated for.

Floor heating is characterized by small horizontal and vertical temperature differences, and might be especially suitable for Japanese homes where it is customary to sit on the floor. This paper compares thermal comfort in homes while floor heating systems and air conditioning systems were in use during winter. Each dwelling had both a floor heating system and an air conditioning system, each used on alternate weeks during the survey period.  Throughout the survey periods residents were asked about their current thermal sensation, thermal preference, overall comfort and foot-comfort.

Rehva Guide No 6 – Indoor Climate and Productivity in Offices - states as its main purpose to establish quantitative relationships of indoor environmental aspects with performance and sickness absenteeism. The following relationships were established: temperature with performance, ventilation with performance, perceived indoor air quality with performance and ventilation with sickness absenteeism.

This paper evaluates the adaptive method application proposed by the last version of ASHRAE 55 (2013) standard in two different climates in Brazil. ASHRAE 55 (2013) currently allows for linear and exponential methods to calculate the prevailing mean outdoor air temperature (Tpma(out)) and both are used to establish the acceptability zones. For the exponential method, two different α were used (0.6 and 0.8). Moreover, the Tpma(out) was calculated for two different time spans (7 and 30 days).

In 2004 the first adaptive thermal comfort guideline was introduced in the Netherlands. Recently a new, upgraded version of this ISSO 74 (ATG) guideline has been developed. The new requirements are hybrid in nature as the 2014 version of the guideline combines elements of traditional non-adaptive comfort standards with elements of adaptive standards. This paper describes the new guideline and explains the rationale behind it. Also changes in comparison with the original 2004 version and issues related to performance verification are discussed.