Evaluation of thermally activated furniture on thermal comfort and energy consumption: An experimental study.
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May.2020
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Personalized Comfort Systems (PCS) have been seen as an effective alternative to provide thermal comfort along with reducing energy consumption. This paper contains the methodology and results of a study conducted in a laboratory environment that aims to evaluate Thermally Activated Furniture (TAF) panels. These panels mounted in front and on the side of a workstation as space partition panels, can provide thermal comfort and have the potential to save energy. The experiments were carried out in a controlled thermal comfort chamber using a thermal mannequin having 22 body segments and TAF. A total of 15 cases were examined against a reference case with an aim to understand the impact of TAF on the change in PMV, Skin Temperature (Tskin) and Heat Flux (?) of 22 individual body segments and change in the energy consumption. The combinations of three Room Air Temperatures (Tair) i.e. 26°
C, 28°C and 30°C were tested with a combination of four surface temperature (Tsur) ranging from the difference between Tair and Tsur 2 to 8°C. For the entire study, Relative Humidity (RH) was maintained at 50%. The results indicate a change in PMV by about 0.15 votes towards the cooler side when the difference between Tair and Tsur was ?2°C for the three Tair cases. The PMV changed by about 0.5 votes in the case of the ?8°C difference between Tair and Tsur. The increase in ?T values was found to increase the cooling thermal energy consumption relative to the baseline case without having PCS in operation, whereas the increase in Tair caused a decrease in the cooling thermal energy consumption.
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Faculty of Design
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110154
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OTHER
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elsevier