Thermal comfort, thermal sensation and skin temperature measurements using demand-controlled ventilation for individual cooling

¹ SINTEF Community, Børrestuveien 3, 0373 Oslo, Norway
² Oslo Metropolitan University, P.O. Box 4 St. Olavs plass, 0130, Norway

^* Corresponding author: hakon.solberg@sintef.no

Abstract

An increasing part of modern building's energy demand is due to cooling. An ongoing research project investigates the possibility to reduce the energy consumption from cooling by utilizing an individually controlled active ventilation diffuser mounted in the ceiling. This study looks at thermal sensation and thermal comfort for 21 test persons exposed to an innovative user controlled active ventilation valve, in a steady and thermally uniform climate chamber. Furthermore, the relationship between biometric data from the test persons skin temperature and sweat, and the test persons thermal sensation scores has been investigated. Each test person was exposed to three different room temperatures in the climate chamber, 24°C, 26°C and 28°C respectively, to simulate typical hot summer conditions in an office in Norway. At a room temperature of 26°C it was possible to achieve acceptable thermal comfort for most test persons with this solution, but higher air velocity than 0.75 m/s around the test persons bodies at room temperatures of 28°C is required to ensure satisfactory thermal comfort.