Influence of PV-powered thermoelectric surfaces for user-individual radiative cooling on the cooling energy demand of buildings

Abstract

This paper discusses a newly developed personal cooling device called Thecla and its influence on a subject’s thermal sensation and comfort as well as the energy demands of cooling buildings. Thecla is a thermoelectric cooling partition that provides a cooled surface using longwave radiation exchange to cool a user’s skin and clothing. The impact of this device on the skin temperatures and the resulting impact on the personal thermal sensation and comfort is determined through a human subject study and numeric comfort and sensation model simulations. The cooling capability of Thecla is quantified by the term “corrective delta”, which describes the highest possible temperature increase from a neutral thermal condition for which Thecla could still maintain thermal comfort. The amount of cooling energy saved because of admissible higher set temperatures is assessed.