Abstract
An increasing part of modern building's energy demand is due to cooling. An ongoing research project investigates the possibility to reduce the energy consumption from cooling by utilizing an individually controlled active ventilation diffuser mounted in the ceiling. This study looks at thermal sensation and thermal comfort for 21 test persons exposed to an innovative user controlled active ventilation valve, in a steady and thermally uniform climate chamber. Furthermore, the relationship between biometric data from the test persons skin temperature and sweat, and the test persons thermal sensation scores has been investigated. Each test person was exposed to three different room temperatures in the climate chamber, 24°C, 26°C and 28°C respectively, to simulate typical hot summer conditions in an office in Norway. At a room temperature of 26°C it was possible to achieve acceptable thermal comfort for most test persons with this solution, but higher air velocity than 0.75 m/s around the test persons bodies at room temperatures of 28°C is required to ensure satisfactory thermal comfort.
Highlights
Modern non-residential buildings in Norway are well isolated and have an increasing amount of technical equipment installed which generate heat
This study looks at thermal sensation and thermal comfort for 21 test persons exposed to an innovative user controlled active ventilation valve, in a steady and thermally uniform climate chamber
These results indicate a positive correlation between thermal sensation and measured skin temperatures
Summary
Modern non-residential buildings in Norway are well isolated and have an increasing amount of technical equipment installed which generate heat. An increasing energy demand for comfort cooling in such buildings has been observed [1]. This demand is usually met by lowering the supply air temperature from the ventilation systems, sometimes in addition to other cooling systems. New solutions for reducing energy use for comfort cooling is of increasing interest. The research project ForKlima [2], have documented acceptance for ventilation-based heating with active supply air diffusers. Demand controlled ventilation systems with this kind of technology allows for further development of ventilation-based cooling by increased air velocity using ceiling mounted individually controlled supply air diffusers
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