Study on the thermal comfort index of solar radiation conditions in winter

Abstract

Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) developed by Fanger is widely used for assessing indoor thermal environments. However, the PMV has deviation in assessing the thermal comfort in solar radiation conditions, due to its neglect of solar radiation. Based on this situation, the Corrected Predicted Mean Vote (CPMV) was proposed to evaluate the thermal comfort of buildings with solar radiation. In order to further explore the application of CPMV, experiments were conducted in three different types of buildings with glass structure in winter. A total of 910 thermal responses from subjects were obtained in Tianjin, North China. Data analysis of the three different types of buildings reveals that the predicted values of CPMV agree quite well with the thermal sensation vote (TSV) in winter. Two different methods of correcting PMV with solar radiation, which are adding an individual solar radiation term (CPMV) and adjusting the mean radiant temperature (APMV), are compared and the results prove that the values of CPMV and APMV are similar in solar radiation conditions. Both CPMV and APMV can accurately predict the human thermal comfort under solar radiation conditions. Through the exploration of thermal preference, the influence of solar radiation on human thermal comfort in summer and winter were discussed. The experimental results show that the effect of solar radiation on the thermal comfort is different in winter and summer. Moreover, significant gender differences on temperature preference and solar radiation preference were found in this study.