The CPMV* for assessing indoor thermal comfort and thermal acceptability under global solar radiation in transparent envelope buildings

Abstract

With the wide application of curtain walls in modern buildings, the effect of solar radiation on indoor thermal comfort becomes significant. To assess the thermal comfort under solar conditions, the corrected predicted mean vote (CPMV) was proposed due to the neglect of solar radiation in the predicted mean vote (PMV) developed by Fanger. However, CPMV only considers direct solar radiation and ignores diffuse solar radiation. Therefore, the effects of diffuse solar radiation on thermal comfort are studied in this research, and field experiments are conducted in transparent envelope buildings. 916 thermal responses are collected in summer. The results reveal that CPMV deviates from the thermal sensation vote (TSV) at high diffuse solar radiation. Then the CPMV* is proposed to consider both direct and diffuse solar radiation, and it is validated to be accurate in quantitatively predicting the thermal sensation under global solar radiation. The thermal acceptability in solar conditions is obtained through questionnaire. The results of thermal unacceptability are different from the predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) developed by Fanger. The minimum percentage of dissatisfaction is 12% instead of 5% based on Fanger’s PPD, and occurs at the CPMV* of −0.34 other than 0.