An indoor environment evaluation by gender and age using an advanced personalized ventilation system

Abstract

In a closed space, appropriate thermal comfort and proper indoor air quality are extremely important in order to obtain the optimal work performance and to avoid health problems of the occupants. Using advanced personalized ventilation systems, different comfort needs can be locally satisfied even in case of warm environments. Thermal sensation and the subjective evaluation of indoor air quality of young and elderly people, men and women respectively, were studied in warm environment using advanced personalized ventilation system combined with total volume ventilation system. Using an advanced personalized ventilation system, 20 m³h⁻¹ air flow was alternately introduced by three air terminal devices built-in the desk and placed on a horizontal plane at the head level of the sitting subject. Thermal sensation was significantly cooler in case of young women in comparison with the other groups. Odor intensity was evaluated to be significantly lower in case of elderly women in comparison with the other groups. Evaluation of air freshness is in correlation with the general thermal sensation. Variation of the direction of the air velocity vector has a cooling side-effect, which, in warm environments, might be useful in order to improve the thermal comfort sensation.

Practical application : From the basic factors that influence the thermal comfort sensation, air velocity is the one and only parameter that must be treated as a vector. The air flow velocity has an important effect on the convective heat quantity released by the human body, but the changes in the air velocity direction have a cooling side-effect. This cooling side-effect should be exploited properly in warm environments by advanced personalized ventilation systems to improve the thermal comfort sensation of the occupants without supplementary energy use.

Keywords

Thermal sensation warm environment gender age indoor air quality air velocity vector

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Melikov

. Personalized ventilation. Indoor Air 2004; 14: 157–167.

Melikov AK. Advanced air distribution. ASHRAE J 2011; November: 73–78.

Melikov

Cermak

Majer

. Personalized ventilation: Evaluation of different air terminal devices. Energy Build 2002; 34: 829–836.

Zeng

Zhao

. Prediction of perceived air quality for personalized ventilation systems. Tsinghua Sci Technol 2005; 10: 227–232.

Melikov

. Advanced air distribution: Improving health and comfort while reducing energy use. Indoor Air 2016; 26: 112–124.

Fanger

Melikov

Hanzawa

et al.

Air turbulence and sensation of draught. Energy Build 1988; 12: 21–39.

Wang

Lian

Lan

. The effect of turbulence intensity on local skin temperature and subjective responses to draft. Energy Build 2011; 43: 2678–2683.

Sun

Tham

Zhou

et al.

Thermal performance of a personalized ventilation air terminal device at two different turbulence intensities. Build Environ 2007; 42: 3974–3983.

Zhang H, Huizenga C, Arens E, et al. Modeling thermal comfort in stratified environments. In: Proceedings of indoor air 2005, Beijing, 2005, pp. 133–137.

10.

Toftum

Nielsen

. Draught sensitivity is influenced by general thermal sensation. Int J Ind Ergon 1996; 18: 295–305.

11.

Arens E, Turner S, Zhang H, et al. Moving air for comfort. ASHRAE J 2009; May: 18–28.

12.

Koskela

Heikkinen

Niemela

et al.

Turbulence correction for thermal comfort calculation. Build Environ 2001; 36: 247–255.

13.

Kalmár

. Alternative personalized ventilation. Energy Build 2013; 65: 37–44.

14.

Kalmár

. Innovative method and equipment for personalized ventilation. Indoor Air 2015; 25: 297–306.

15.

Hensel

Iggo

Witt

. A quantitative study of sensitive cutaneous themoreceptors with C afferent fibres. J Physiology 1960; 153: 113–126.

16.

Darian-Smith

Johnson

. Thermal sensibility and thermoreceptors. J Investig Dermatol 1977; 69: 146–153.

17.

Parsons

. The effects of gender, acclimation state, the opportunity to adjust clothing and physical disability on requirements for thermal comfort. Energy Build 2002; 34: 593–599.

18.

Havenith

Holmér

Parsons

. Personal factors in thermal comfort assessment: Clothing properties and metabolic heat production. Energy Build 2002; 34: 581–591.

19.

Indraganti

Daryani Rao

. Effect of age, gender, economic group and tenure on thermal comfort: A field study in residential buildings in hot and dry climate with seasonal variations. Energy Build 2010; 42: 273–281.

20.

Choi

Aziz

Loftness

. Investigation on the impacts of different genders and ages on satisfaction with thermal environments in office buildings. Build Environ 2010; 45: 1529–1535.