Modelling the Thermal Comfort of Internal Building Spaces in Social Buildings

Abstract

Creating a comfortable indoor environment has been one of the main concerns when it comes to the design and operation of buildings. Buildings are a crucial part of our daily life, on average people spends 85% of their time performing activities inside of buildings and therefore the quality of the indoor environment is a critical factor affecting the happiness and productivity of building users.The indoor environmental quality has a strong relationship on the thermal conditions of a space which is directly affected by the amount of heat lost or gained due to the properties of the materials used, the external environmental conditions and the inner sources of heat; In consequence, efforts have to be made to maintain proper thermal conditions by means of using natural and mechanical strategies to provide heating, cooling and ventilation. While the thermal comfort is an important aspect for the average user of a building, it becomes a critical aspect when it comes to population highly sensitive to thermal conditions. Children under and patients in hospitals with low levels of immune system are more likely to feel discomfort under certain operational conditions of ventilation, cooling and heating delivery systems. Particularly in this study have been investigated the thermal comfort and thermal comfort parameters for children, toddlers and hospital patients in three locations during the typical operation of systems in late spring.