Field study of human thermal comfort and thermal adaptability during the summer and winter in Beijing

This study was conducted during the summer and winter in Beijing. Classrooms and offices in a university were used to conduct the survey. The respondents’ thermal sensation and thermal adaptability in both seasons were analyzed. During the study, indoor environmental parameters including air temperature, mean radiant temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity were measured. The respondents’ thermal sensation was determined by questionnaire.A relationship between indoor temperature and thermal sensation was found. In the summer study, the “scissors difference” between TSV and PMV was observed in the air-conditioned environments if the temperature was out of the neutral zone. People had higher tolerance in the hot environment than PMV predicted. During winter, the outdoor temperature had a prominent influence on thermal adaptability. The low outdoor temperature made people adapt to the cold environment. When the indoor temperature was heated to a high temperature by space heating facilities, respondents felt uncomfortable since their adaptability to the cold environment was nullified.Furthermore, the differences in thermal responses between respondents from North and South China showed that the different climates of people's native regions also affected their thermal comfort and adaptability.     

Indoor thermal environment and energy saving for urban residential buildings in China

The purpose of this survey is to investigate the actual conditions of the residential indoor thermal environment in urban areas in China for evaluating thermal comfort and predicting the energy conservation feasibility for space heating and cooling.The apartment homes under investigation were located in the urban areas of nine major cities. The questionnaire survey revealed building characteristics, the types of space heating and cooling system in use, aspects of life style, during winter and summer seasons, and so on. The measurement showed that winter indoor temperatures in Harbin, Urumqi, Beijing and Xi’an remain at a relatively stable level near 20 °C due to the central heating system installed. However in the other cities lacking central heating systems, indoor temperatures fluctuated as a function of the change of outdoor temperature. On the other hand, summer indoor evening temperatures in Shanghai, Changsha, Chongqing and Hong Kong were higher than the comfort zone of ASHRAE. Therefore it is expected that energy use for space heating and cooling in the southern China will increase in the near future because of occupants’ requirement for comfortable indoor environment. Based on the results yielded by this study, in Beijing the calculation of space heating and cooling loads indicated that the energy used to heat indoor spaces can be halved by installing thermal insulation and properly sealing the building.     

Indoor human thermal adaptation: dynamic processes and weighting factors

In this study, we explore the correlations between indoor climate change and human thermal adaptation, especially with regard to the timescale and weighting factors of physiological adaptation. A comparative experiment was conducted in China where wintertime indoor climate in the southern region (devoid of space heating) is much colder than in the northern region (with pervasive district heating). Four subject groups with different indoor thermal experiences participated in this climate chamber experiment. The results indicate that previous indoor thermal exposure is an important contributor to occupants’ physiological adaptation. More specifically, subjects acclimated to neutral‐warm indoors tended to have stronger physiological responses and felt more uncomfortable in moderate cold exposures than those adapted to the cold. As for the driving force of thermal adaptation, physiological acclimation is an important aspect among all the supposed adaptive layers. However, the physiological adaptation speed lags behind changes in the overall subjective perception.     

Indoor thermal environment of urban residential buildings in China: winter investigation in five major cities

The purposes of this investigation are to look into the actual conditions of urban residential indoor environment in China during the winter season, and to discuss the thermal comfort as well as to understand the possibility of space heating energy conservation. Investigations of indoor thermal environment were carried out in Harbin, Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai and Hong Kong of China. The results showed that the indoor thermal condition in heating usage zone is good, such as Harbin, Beijing and Xi’an. The indoor thermal comfort is strongly affected by the outdoor climate in non-heating usage zone, such as Shanghai and Hong Kong.     

One-year Measurement of Indoor Climate and Energy Consumption of Super-insulated Houses in a Mild Climate Region of Japan

Two super-insulated houses were constructed near Sendai City in accordance with the Canadian R-2000 manual (Canadian Home Builders' Assoc., 1987). Shelter performance, thermal environment, air quality and energy consumption of these two houses were investigated for one year. The two super-insulated houses were very airtight compared with other houses. The one-year measurement of room temperature and humidity for one super-insulated house showed that the daily mean temperature for the dining-living room and the master bedroom was 15°C-20°C during the winter and 22°C-28°C during the summer. Absolute humidity for these rooms was less than 5 g/kg (DA) during the winter. The indoor environment of the two super-insulated houses during the heating season was more thermally comfortable, compared with that of ordinary houses in Japan. During the summer, the indoor temperature in these two houses was stable during the day and did not decrease at night even if the outdoor air temperature dropped. The CO₂ concentration in these two houses was lower than that of other airtight houses due to continuous mechanical ventilation. The space heating energy consumption for one super-insulated house was less than that of ordinary houses in Tohoku District in which only the living-dining room was heated.     

Development and experimental validation of a novel indirect-expansion solar-assisted multifunctional heat pump

This paper proposes a novel indirect-expansion solar-assisted multifunctional heat pump (IX-SAMHP) which integrates a domestic heat pump with a solar water heater. The IX-SAMHP can not only work in operation modes included in the two household appliances, but also operate in four new energy-saving operation modes for the space cooling, space heating and water heating. All operation modes have functioned successfully and can be switched to each other smoothly on a purpose-built experimental setup. Experiments of the heat pump water heating mode at outdoor air temperatures of 8 °C and 15 °C and the solar-assisted space heating mode at indoor air temperatures of 20 °C have been investigated in detail. Electric heaters were used to simulate solar radiation intensity in different weather conditions. The experimental results show that the IX-SAMHP can produce hot water with much less electric consumption in cloudy days compared with a solar water heater and can operate in much higher coefficient of performance than a domestic heat pump in cold winter. The IX-SAMHP is especially suitable for the regions abundant in solar radiation where the space heating, space cooling and water heating are required all the year round.     

Estimating natural-ventilation potential considering both thermal comfort and IAQ issues

Natural-ventilation potential (NVP) value can provide the designers significant information to properly design and arrange natural ventilation strategy at the preliminary or conceptual stage of ventilation and building design. Based on the previous study by Yang et al. [Investigation potential of natural driving forces for ventillation in four major cities in China. Building and Environment 2005;40:739–46], we developed a revised model to estimate the potential for natural ventilation considering both thermal comfort and IAQ issues for buildings in China. It differs from the previous one by Yang et al. in two predominant aspects: (1) indoor air temperature varies synchronously with the outdoor air temperature rather than staying at a constant value as assumed by Yang et al. This would recover the real characteristic of natural ventilation, (2) thermal comfort evaluation index is integrated into the model and thus the NVP can be more reasonably predicted. By adopting the same input parameters, the NVP values are obtained and compared with the early work of Yang et al. for a single building in four representative cities which are located in different climates, i.e., Urumqi in severe cold regions, Beijing in cold regions, Shanghai in hot summer and cold winter regions and Guangzhou in hot summer and warm winter regions of China. Our outcome shows that Guangzhou has the highest and best yearly natural-ventilation potential, followed by Shanghai, Beijing and Urumqi, which is quite distinct from that of Yang et al. From the analysis, it is clear that our model evaluates the NVP values more consistently with the outdoor climate data and thus reveals the true value of NVP.     

A field investigation of the thermal environment and adaptive thermal behavior in bedrooms in different climate regions in China

Sleep thermal environments substantially impact sleep quality. To study the sleep thermal environment and thermal comfort in China, this study carried out on-site monitoring of thermal environmental parameters in peoples’ homes, including 166 households in five climate zones, for one year. A questionnaire survey on sleep thermal comfort and adaptive behavior was also conducted. The results showed that the indoor temperature for sleep in northern China was more than 4°C higher than that in southern China in winter, while the indoor temperatures for sleep were similar in summer. Furthermore, 70% of people were satisfied with their sleep thermal environment. Due to the use of air conditioning and window opening in various areas in summer, people were satisfied with their sleep thermal environments. Due to the lack of central heating in the southern region in winter, people feel cold and their sleep thermal environment needs further improvement. The bedding insulation in summer and winter in northern China was 1.83clo and 2.67clo, respectively, and in southern China was 2.21clo and 3.17clo, respectively. Both northern China and southern China used air conditioning only in summer. People in southern China opened their windows all year, while those in northern China opened their windows during the summer and transitional periods.     

New concepts and approach for developing energy efficient buildings: Ideal specific heat for building internal thermal mass

The shortcomings or limitations of the traditional approach to developing energy efficient buildings are that they can not determine: (1) the ideal thermophysical properties of building envelope material, where “ideal” means that such material can use ambient air temperature variation and/or solar radiation efficiently to keep the indoor air temperature in the thermal comfort range with no additional space heating or cooling; (2) the best natural ventilation strategy; (3) the minimal additional energy consumption for space heating in winter or air-conditioning in summer. To overcome these problems, some new concepts for developing energy efficient buildings are put forward in this paper. They are the ideal thermophysical properties of the building envelope material, the ideal natural ventilation rate, and a minimal additional space heating or cooling energy consumption. A new approach for determining these properties is also developed. In contrast to the traditional approach (the thermophysical properties of building envelope material are known and constant so that the relating equations describing the indoor air temperature tend to be linear differential equations), the new approach solves the inverse problem (thermophysical properties, etc. of a buildings are unknown), whose solution can be a function instead of a value. As a first step, the ideal specific heat of the building envelope material for internal thermal mass is analyzed for buildings located in various cities in different climatic regions of China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin, Urumchi, Lhasa, Kunming and Guangzhou. We found that the ideal specific heat is composed of a basic value and an excessive one which is of δ function for the cases studied. Some limitations that would need further study are introduced in the end of the paper.     

Analysis of the CPMV index for evaluating indoor thermal comfort in southern China in summer,a case study in Nanjing

With the rapid development of building technology, transparent envelope is more and more widely used, which makes the indoor environment of buildings more and more affected by solar radiation. However, the effects of solar radiation are not included in the PMV model. The Corrected Predicted Mean Vote (CPMV) model considering solar radiation was previously proposed and verified in northern China. In order to expand the applicability of the CPMV model to the hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) zone of southern China, a field study was conducted in an office building in Nanjing. A total of 686 valid questionnaires were recovered during the surveys in two summers in 2019 and 2020. The results show that the evaluation value of CPMV is highly consistent with the actual thermal sensation vote (TSV) when the corrected operative temperature is below 30 °C. However, when the corrected operative temperature is above 30 °C, the CPMV value is higher than TSV, because it underestimates the tolerance of human body to the hot environment in Nanjing. The thermal neutral temperature is 26.12 °C (CPMV) and 26.28 °C (TSV) respectively, which is higher than that in winter and summer in northern China. This study fills the blank in the application of CPMV model in southern China. The CPMV model can accurately evaluate the thermal comfort of indoor environment affected by solar radiation, which is worthy of promotion and application to other types of buildings and areas.     

Disparities of indoor temperature in winter: A cross-sectional analysis of the Nationwide Smart Wellness Housing Survey in Japan

The WHO Housing and health guidelines recommend a minimum indoor temperature of 18°C to prevent cold-related diseases. In Japan, indoor temperatures appear lower than in Euro-American countries because of low insulation standards and use of partial intermittent heating. This study investigated the actual status of indoor temperatures in Japan and the common characteristics of residents who live in cold homes. We conducted a nationwide real-world survey on indoor temperature for 2 weeks in winter. Cross-sectional analyses involving 2190 houses showed that average living room, changing room, and bedroom temperatures were 16.8°C, 13.0°C, and 12.8°C, respectively. Comparison of average living room temperature between prefectures revealed a maximum difference of 6.7°C (Hokkaido: 19.8°C, Kagawa: 13.1°C). Compared to the high-income group, the odds ratio for living room temperature falling below 18°C was 1.38 (95% CI: 1.04-1.84) and 2.07 (95% CI: 1.28-3.33) for the middle- and low-income groups. The odds ratio was 1.96 (95% CI: 1.19-3.22) for single-person households, compared to households living with housemates. Furthermore, lower room temperature was correlated with local heating device use and a larger amount of clothes. These results will be useful in the development of prevention strategies for residents who live in cold homes.     

Measurements of indoor thermal environment and energy analysis in a large space building in typical seasons

Shanghai International Gymnastics Stadium is the selected object for site-measurement. The site-measurements have been carried out during summer, winter, and the transitional seasons. Their indoor thermal environments were controlled by continuous air-conditioning, intermittent air-conditioning and natural ventilation, respectively. The site-measurement includes outdoor environment (the weather conditions and peripheral hallway), indoor air temperature distribution (the occupant zone temperature, radial temperature near upper openings and the vertical temperature distributions, etc.), and the heat balance of air-conditioning system, etc. It is found that temperature stratification in winter with air-conditioning is most obvious. The maximum difference of vertical temperature is 15 °C in winter. The second largest one is 12 °C in summer, and less than 2 °C in the transitional season. The results of measurements indicate that it is different in the characteristics on energy saving of upper openings during the different seasons. With heat balance measurements, it is discovered that the roof load and ventilated and infiltrated load account for larger percentages in terms of cooling and heating load. In this paper, many discussions on the results of site measurements show some characteristics and regulations of indoor thermal environment in large space building.     

Research on seasonal indoor thermal environment and residents' control behavior of cooling and heating systems in Korea

Indoor thermal environments and residents' control behavior of cooling and heating systems were investigated in Seoul, Korea and compared with the results of previous studies. Twenty-four houses in summer, six houses in autumn and 36 houses in winter were used in this study. The measurement of temperature, humidity and air conditioner usage behavior was carried out. The clo-value, thermal comfort, sensation and basic data of the houses were also investigated. The indoor thermal environment in the summer had a high temperature and a high humidity ratio compare to standard comfort zone. Most of the indoor thermal environments at the time of starting the air conditioner in the summer were out of the comfort zone. Some of the data recorded while the air conditioner was stopped were in the comfort zone, but in many cases the temperature was relatively higher than comfort zone. Most indoor climate distributions in the winter were in the comfort zone and the indoor climate in autumn coincided well with the criteria of the comfort zone. Compared with results of previous studies in these 25 years, indoor ambient average temperature in winter has increased and the comfort temperature has increased in the heating period and decreased in the cooling period. This result indicates that the development of an HVAC system has created an expectation of comfort for residents and has shifted their thermal comfort zone warmer in winter and cooler in summer.     

The effect of reflective coatings on building surface temperatures,indoor environment and energy consumption—An experimental study

This paper presents an experimental study on the impact of reflective coatings on indoor environment and building energy consumption. Three types of coatings were applied on identical buildings and their performance was compared with three sets of experiments in both summer and winter. The first experiment considers the impact of coatings on exterior and interior surface temperatures, indoor air temperatures, globe temperature, thermal stratification and mean radiant temperatures for non-conditioned buildings (free-floating case); the second one focused on the impact of coatings on reduction of electricity consumption in conditioned spaces; in the third experiment, the impact of different envelope material properties equipped with different coatings was investigated. The results showed that, depending on location, season and orientation, exterior and interior surface temperatures can be reduced by up to 20 °C and 4.7 °C respectively using different coatings. The maximum reduction in globe temperature and mean radiant temperature was 2.3 °C and 3.7 °C in that order. For the conditioned case, the annual reduction in electricity consumption for electricity reached 116 kWh. Nevertheless, the penalty in increased heating demand can result in a negative all-year effect in Shanghai, which is characterized by hot summers and cold winters.     

Thermal responses to different residential environments in Harbin

In China, adding space heating in residential buildings is normally scheduled at the end of October each year, with heat supplied by district heating systems. This paper describes a field study of thermal comfort conducted in Harbin during the winter from 2009 to 2010 before and after the space heating is added. The aim is to study human responses to thermal conditions in the two periods in cold climates. 23 buildings in six communities were investigated. 199 occupants from 135 families and 174 occupants from 104 families participated in the two surveys during the two periods, respectively. The neutral air temperature before adding the space heating is 25.1 °C, while during the space heating, it is 20.4 °C. The clothing insulation is 0.77 clo and 0.88 clo, respectively. If they were 0.88 clo instead of 0.77 clo before adding the space heating, the neutral air temperature should be 21.1 °C. Before and during space heating, more than 80% felt acceptable at the air temperature range between 17.5–24.0 °C and 19.0–26.5 °C for the two periods. The residents’ physiological acclimation may contribute to the differences. The preferred temperature is within the range of 23.0–24.0 °C and 21.5–24.0 °C, respectively. The preferred humidity is 47.7% and 40.5% during the two surveys. People felt cold generally before heating, while they felt comfortable at the same temperature range during space heating period. People often felt dry during heating when the relative humidity is lower than 30%, while they felt comfortable at the same relative humidity before heating.     

Performance of energy recovery ventilator with various weathers and temperature set-points

Based on the generic dynamic building energy simulation environment, EnergyPlus, the simulation model of energy recovery ventilator (ERV) is developed in this paper. With different indoor temperature set-points, the energy performance of ERV along with the availability of ERV is investigated both for Beijing and Shanghai weathers in China in terms of the ratio of heat recovery to energy supply by HVAC devices and ERV. Simulation results show that the seasonal average of the ratio is linear with indoor temperature set-points. The availability of ERV in Shanghai is better than that in Beijing during the winter. In summer, the utilization of ERV is uneconomical if the indoor temperature set-point is higher than 24 °C for the Beijing climate. The indoor temperature set-points have the reverse effects to the availability of ERV in the mid-season and to that in the hottest months. Meanwhile, the heating amount recovery in summer and the cooling amount recovery in winter, both of which impair the strong points of the energy recovery, are analyzed quantitatively.     

Experimental investigation and theoretical analysis of solar heating and humidification system with desiccant rotor

In this paper, a solar heating system, which combines the technologies of evacuated tube solar air collector and rotary desiccant humidification together, has been configured, tested and modeled. The system mainly includes 15 m² solar air collectors and a desiccant air-conditioning unit. Two operation modes are designed, namely, direct solar heating mode and solar heating with desiccant humidification mode. Performance model of the system has been created in TRNSYS. The objective of this paper is to check the applicability of solar heating and evaluate the feasibility and potential of desiccant humidification for improving indoor thermal comfort. Experimental results show that the solar heating system can convert about 50% of the received solar radiation for space heating on a sunny day in winter and increases indoor temperature by about 10 °C. Compared with direct solar heating mode, solar heating with desiccant humidification can increase the fraction of the time within comfort region from about 10% to 20% for standalone solar heating and from about 30% to 60% for solar heating with auxiliary heater according to seasonal analysis. It is confirmed that solar heating with desiccant humidification is promising and worthwhile being applied to improving indoor thermal comfort in heating season.     

Flow patterns and thermal comfort in a room with panel,floor and wall heating

Thermal comfort aspects in a room vary with different space heating methods. The main focus in this study was how different heating systems and their position affect the indoor climate in an exhaust-ventilated office under Swedish winter conditions. The heat emitters used were a high and a medium–high temperature radiator, a floor heating system and large wall heating surfaces at low temperature. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were used to investigate possible cold draught problems, differences in vertical temperature gradients, air speed levels and energy consumption. Two office rooms with different ventilation systems and heating needs were evaluated. Both systems had high air exchange rates and cold infiltration air.     

Thermal comfort in naturally ventilated buildings in hot-humid area of China

Human responses to thermal environments in naturally ventilated (NV) buildings in hot-humid area of China were systematically investigated in the present study. Thirty local inhabitants long-time living in NV buildings participated in the study and reported their thermal sensations and perceptions and adaptive behaviors while all physical and personal variables were collected. Based on a year-long survey, a close match of indoor physical variables and occupants’ clothing insulation with outdoor climate was found as an important feature of NV buildings. Integrated indices can capture more thermal contexts in the NV buildings in hot-humid area of China than simple indices. Thermal sensation was found to be a good linear function of SET* with the thermal neutrality of 25.4 °C and the 90% (80%) acceptable range of 23.5–27.4 °C (22.1–28.7 °C) in SET*. The adaptive evidences were obtained for clothing adjustment, window opening and using fan respectively and the modified PMV model was validated to be applicable in NV buildings in hot-humid area of China with an expectancy factor of 0.822. Comparisons with other field studies indicate that people can develop various human-environment relationships through thermal adaptation to local climate, resulting in different thermal neutral temperatures in various climates. The subjects in hot-humid area of China are more acclimated and tolerable with hot and humid environments and more uncomfortable and intolerable with cold environments while compared with those in temperate climates.     

Improved indoor thermal comfort during defrost with a novel reverse-cycle defrosting method for air source heat pumps

When an air-source heat pump (ASHP) unit is used for space heating at a low ambient temperature in winter, frost may be formed on its outdoor coil surface. Frosting affects its operational performance and energy efficiency, and therefore periodic defrosting is necessary. Currently, the most widely used standard defrosting method for ASHP units is reverse-cycle defrost. During a standard reverse-cycle defrosting process, the indoor coil in an ASHP unit actually acts as an evaporator, therefore, no heating is provided and hence indoor air temperature in a heated space can drop. Furthermore, a longer period of time is needed before space heating can become available immediately after the completion of defrosting. Consequently, occupants’ thermal comfort may be adversely affected. To improve the indoor thermal comfort for occupants during reverse-cycle defrosting, a novel thermal energy storage (TES) based reverse-cycle defrosting method has been developed and the improvement to occupants’ thermal comfort experimentally evaluated and is reported in this paper. Comparative experiments using both the novel TES based reverse-cycle defrosting method and the standard reverse-cycle defrosting method were carried out. Experimental results and the evaluated indoor thermal comfort indexes clearly suggested that when compared to the use of standard reverse-cycle defrost, the use of the novel reverse-cycle defrosting method can help achieve improved indoor thermal comfort, with a shorter defrosting period and a higher indoor supply air temperature during defrosting.