Using Thermostats for Indoor Climate Control in Office Buildings: The Effect on Thermal Comfort

  • Thermostats are widely used in temperature regulation of indoor spaces and have a direct impact on energy use and occupant thermal comfort. Existing guidelines make recommendations for properly selecting set points to reduce energy use, but there is little or no information regarding the actual achieved thermal comfort of the occupants. While dry-bulb air temperature measured at the thermostat location is sometimes a good proxy, there is less understanding of whether thermal comfort targets are actually met. In this direction, we have defined an experimental Simulation protocol involving two office buildings; the buildings have contrasting geometrical and construction characteristics, as well as different building services systems for meeting heating and cooling demands. A parametric analysis is performed for combinations of controlled variables and boundary conditions. In all cases, occupant thermal comfort is estimated using the Fanger index, as defined in ISO 7730. The results of the parametric study suggest that simple boundsThermostats are widely used in temperature regulation of indoor spaces and have a direct impact on energy use and occupant thermal comfort. Existing guidelines make recommendations for properly selecting set points to reduce energy use, but there is little or no information regarding the actual achieved thermal comfort of the occupants. While dry-bulb air temperature measured at the thermostat location is sometimes a good proxy, there is less understanding of whether thermal comfort targets are actually met. In this direction, we have defined an experimental Simulation protocol involving two office buildings; the buildings have contrasting geometrical and construction characteristics, as well as different building services systems for meeting heating and cooling demands. A parametric analysis is performed for combinations of controlled variables and boundary conditions. In all cases, occupant thermal comfort is estimated using the Fanger index, as defined in ISO 7730. The results of the parametric study suggest that simple bounds on the dry-bulb air temperature are not sufficient to ensure comfort, and in many cases, more detailed considerations taking into account building characteristics, as well as the types of building heating and cooling services are required. The implication is that the calculation or estimation of detailed comfort indices, or even the use of personalised comfort models, is key towards a more human-centric approach to building design and operation.show moreshow less

Download full text files

Export metadata

Additional Services

Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Author:Georgios KontesORCiD, Georgios Giannakis, Philip Horn, Simone Steiger, Dimitrios Rovas
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:92-opus4-2465
URL / DOI:http://10.3390/en10091368
Parent Title (English):Energies
Publisher:MDPI AG
Place of publication:Basel, Switzerland
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Release Date:2017/09/22
Tag:Fanger; building energy performance simulation; human-centred design and operation; thermal comfort; thermostats
GND Keyword:Raumtemperatur; Behaglichkeit; Klimatechnik; Energieeffizienz
Volume:10
Issue:9
Pagenumber:22 S.
Note:
Funding:
1. FP7-ICT-2011-6: Building as a Service (BaaS, #288409)

2. H2020-EeB-2015: Modelling Optimization of Energy Efficiency
in Buildings for Urban Sustainability (MOEEBIUS, #680517)

3. H2020-EeB5-2015: Optimised Energy Efficient Design
Platform for Refurbishment at District Level (OptEEmAL, #680676)
Source:http://ezb.uni-regensburg.de/?2437446&bibid=FHN
Licence (German):Creative Commons - Namensnennung
Verstanden ✔
Diese Webseite verwendet technisch erforderliche Session-Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie diesem zu. Unsere Datenschutzerklärung finden Sie hier.