A review of intensified conditioning of personal micro-environments: Moving closer to the human body

Abstract

• Intensified conditioning of personal micro-environments is reviewed. • Different systems are evaluated and useful findings are summarized. • Feasible applications, current gaps as well as future research needs are analyzed. Various systems and technologies have been developed in recent years to fulfil the growing needs of high-performance HVAC systems with better performance of energy efficiency, thermal comfort, and occupancy health. Intensified conditioning of human occupied areas and less intensified conditioning of surrounding areas are able to effectively improve the overall satisfaction by individual control of personalized micro-environments and also, achieve maximum energy efficiency. Four main concepts have been identified chronologically through the development of personal environmental conditioning, changing the intensified conditioning area closer to the human body and enhancing conditioning efforts, namely the task ambient conditioning (TAC) system, personal environmental control system (PECS), personal comfort system (PCS), and the personal thermal management (PTM) system. This review follows a clue of the concept progress and system evaluation, summarizes important findings and feasible applications, current gaps as well as future research needs.