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Lecture

Thermal Comfort Fundamentals

In course

CIVIL-212: Fundamentals of indoor climate

The indoor climate impacts building performance and human well-being. This course covers fundamental knowledge of indoor air quality and thermal environment, with their assessment methods. It also outlines strategies for creating comfortable, healthy, and ...

Description

This lecture covers the fundamentals of thermal comfort, including the human body's heat balance, factors influencing thermal comfort, and physiological and behavioral control mechanisms. It explores the impact of air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, and mean radiant temperature on human comfort. The lecture also delves into the criteria for local thermal discomfort, such as radiant asymmetry, vertical air temperature differences, and floor surface temperatures. Additionally, it discusses the physiological basis for air movement effects and the calculation of operative temperature. The session concludes with a quiz on thermal comfort assessment and standards.

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Instructor

Dusan Licina

Dusan Licina is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Indoor Environmental Quality at the School for Architecture, Civil, and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) at EPFL. He leads the Human-Oriented Built Environment Lab (HOBEL) in Fribourg since 1 June 2018. Dusan’s research and teaching are driven by the need to advance knowledge of the intersections between people and the built environment in order to ensure high indoor environmental quality for building occupants with minimum energy input. His research group specializes in air quality engineering, focusing on understanding of concentrations, dynamics and fates of air pollutants within buildings, and development and application of methods to quantitatively describe relationships between air pollution sources and consequent human exposures. His research interests also encompass optimization of building ventilation systems with an aim to improve air quality and thermal comfort in an energy-efficient manner. Throughout his career, Dusan specialized in air quality engineering, focusing on sources and transport of air pollutants in buildings, human exposure assessment, and optimization of building ventilation systems with an aim to improve air quality. Dusan completed my joint Doctorate degree at the National University of Singapore and Technical University of Denmark. He was formerly master and bachelor student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Prior to joining EPFL, Dusan worked for 3.5 years in the USA, first he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Berkeley, and then he served as director on the standard development team at International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) in New York. Dusan is the recipient of several honors and awards, including Ralph G. Nevin’s award by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) given in recognition of significant accomplishment in the study of human response to the environment. He is editorial board member of the highly acclaimed Indoor Air journal. He is passionate about raising awareness about the air quality issues worldwide and developing buildings that are not only energy efficient, but that also contribute to “Michelin Star” indoor air quality.

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Related concepts (31)

Thermal comfort

Thermal comfort is the condition of mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment and is assessed by subjective evaluation (ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55). The human body can be viewed as a heat engine where food is the input energy. The human body will release excess heat into the environment, so the body can continue to operate. The heat transfer is proportional to temperature difference. In cold environments, the body loses more heat to the environment and in hot environments the body does not release enough heat.

Thermal radiation

Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation generated by the thermal motion of particles in matter. Thermal radiation is generated when heat from the movement of charges in the material (electrons and protons in common forms of matter) is converted to electromagnetic radiation. All matter with a temperature greater than absolute zero emits thermal radiation. At room temperature, most of the emission is in the infrared (IR) spectrum. Particle motion results in charge-acceleration or dipole oscillation which produces electromagnetic radiation.

Wet-bulb temperature

The wet-bulb temperature (WBT) is the temperature read by a thermometer covered in water-soaked (water at ambient temperature) cloth (a wet-bulb thermometer) over which air is passed. At 100% relative humidity, the wet-bulb temperature is equal to the air temperature (dry-bulb temperature); at lower humidity the wet-bulb temperature is lower than dry-bulb temperature because of evaporative cooling. The wet-bulb temperature is defined as the temperature of a parcel of air cooled to saturation (100% relative humidity) by the evaporation of water into it, with the latent heat supplied by the parcel.

Humidity

Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity depends on the temperature and pressure of the system of interest. The same amount of water vapor results in higher relative humidity in cool air than warm air. A related parameter is the dew point. The amount of water vapor needed to achieve saturation increases as the temperature increases.

Heat transfer

Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, thermal convection, thermal radiation, and transfer of energy by phase changes. Engineers also consider the transfer of mass of differing chemical species (mass transfer in the form of advection), either cold or hot, to achieve heat transfer.

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