Abstract

To accomplish the current climate goals of the federal republic of Germany, energy efficiency within the building and automotive sector must improve considerably. One possible way to reduce the high amount of energy required for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) is the introduction of personal climatization systems in combination with the extension of the standardized room air temperature range. Personal systems allow improvements of climatic conditions (heating, cooling, and air quality) within sub-areas of the room instead of conditioning an entire room air volume. In this regard, personal systems are perfectly suitable for locations with local air-conditioning focal points, such as open-plan offices and vehicle cabins, where they substantially improve the energy efficiency of the entire system. This work aims to summarize previously conducted research in the area of personal climatization systems. The investigated local thermal actuators comprise fans for the generation of air movement, ventilators for the improvement of the air quality within the respiratory area of persons, water-conditioned panels for the climatization of persons via longwave radiation and conduction, radiant heaters, and combinations of the systems. Personal systems are superior to mixing ventilation regarding the improvement of the perceived air quality and thermal comfort. Furthermore, the introduced overview shows that personal climatization systems are generally more energy-efficient than conventional air-conditioning and facilitates the extension of the indoor air temperature corridor of the HVAC. Table fans and climatized seats are highly effective in connection with the improvement of personal thermal comfort. The performance of the overwhelming majority of applied personal environmental control systems is user-controlled or depends on a predefined load profile, which is generally defined person independent. Single studies reveal that effectively controlled automated systems have a similar thermal impact on a user’s thermal comfort as user-controlled ones. The implementation of an automated control system is feasible by using novel approaches such as the so-called human-centered closed loop control-platform (HCCLC-platform). The latter contains a central data server which allows asynchronous, bi-directional communication between multi-modal sensor data, user feedback systems, thermal actuators and numerical calculation models used to assess the individual thermal comfort of a person. This enables a continuous and holistic reflection of the thermal situation inside a room and the estimation of the corresponding impact on an individual’s thermal comfort. Considering the measured and simulated thermal state of a single person, the described system is capable of determining body-part-specific energy requirements that are needed to keep the overall thermal comfort level of an individual person on a high level.

Highlights

  • This paper summarizes previously conducted research in the area of personalized climatization and aims to show possible improvement potentials related to the design and implementation of energy-efficient and comfortable indoor environments that go hand in hand with increased health and productivity of the occupants inside

  • According to DIN EN ISO 7730 [9], the operative indoor temperature range of HVAC systems in office buildings must be kept between 22 ◦C and 24.5 ◦C to provide a comfortable indoor climate for the occupants inside

  • By applying personal HVAC systems, this temperature range can be expanded to values between 18 ◦C and 30 ◦C while causing thermal dissatisfaction below 20%

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Summary

Introduction

In connection with the goals of the European Union, the greenhouse gas emissions in Germany must be reduced by 55% and 80% until 2030 and 2050 [1], respectively To accomplish these goals, the energy efficiency of buildings and vehicles must be substantially increased, where the main task of buildings and vehicles is to guarantee a thermally comfortable indoor climate to the occupants. It is known that an improved indoor climate can substantially enhance the productivity and health of occupants in buildings and vehicles [3,4]. The researchers state that an increased building ventilation rate enhances health and productivity of the occupants especially at indoor temperatures above 24.5 ◦C. Rim et al [7] state that the energy consumption and corresponding costs for providing a minimum building ventilation rate of 25 L s−1 at an indoor temperature of 28 ◦C is very low compared to the annual salaries in Singapore

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