Thermal responses in temporarily occupied space in the summer: Spatial-temporal synergetic alliesthesia using a ceiling fan

Abstract

Although temporal and spatial alliesthesia have been widely studied in recent decades, their synergistic impact on occupant perceptions have received less attention. One reason for this is that prior to the concept of temporarily occupied space (TOS), real-world application circumstances were not clearly defined. TOS were defined as air-conditioned indoor facilities where the majority of people spend shorter than a set time period, such as banks, fast-food restaurants and train station waiting spaces (about 40 min). In this study, thermal responses based on the spatial-temporal synergetic alliesthesia were investigated. According to the association of human physiological parameters with thermal perception responses, a thermal sensation model was developed. Reasonable indoor design temperatures to achieve energy-efficient comfort were determined. Chamber tests were performed on acclimatized human volunteers to determine spatial-temporal synergetic alliesthesia. Besides, an actual building was used for transient energy consumption simulations. For this study, a TOS with a non-adjustable ceiling fan (0.85 m/s, 128 rpm, 17.2 W) setting was used. The results showed that 27 °C and 55%RH are the best HVAC control target settings for the air-conditioned TOS with ceiling fans. It has the potential to save 34% of energy (26.8 kWh/m2·yr) while maintaining the thermal comfort of the human body. The high-accuracy thermal sensation model for spatial-temporal synergetic alliesthesia demonstrated good agreement with experimental data that were not used in the regression development. TOS can be used as a real-world example of the spatial-temporal synergetic alliesthesia. The findings of this study are useful for promoting and applying alliesthesia in the field of buildings, as well as for energy-saving thermal comfort.