IMPACT OF USER CONTROL OVER LOCALISED AIR MOVEMENT AND PERSONALISED VENTILATION ON THERMAL SATISFACTION

Abstract

Over-cooling of space is a prevalent issue posed by current heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HAVC) system in the tropical climate. With a new paradigm shift to occupant-centric thermal comfort, the introduction of personalised ventilation (PV) system has the potential to improve thermal satisfaction of the occupants.

User-controllable PV system allows occupants to adjust position and flowrate of air delivered to them. This caters to the different thermal requirements of individuals. In this study, 7 subjects were exposed to various sets of scenarios under different air temperature and air movement settings. Subjective and objective analysis were carried out. SPSS was used for data analysis, and Wilcoxon test was conducted.

Data analysis shows subjects experienced a significant higher thermal and air movement satisfaction when localised air was delivered to them via fan at 26 C. A higher thermal satisfaction was observed at elevated temperature of 26 C with air movement than at temperature of 23C without any air movement.

The study finds out the user-controlled PV system and desktop fan improve subjects’ thermal satisfaction and air movement satisfaction throughout the experiment. This was not observed in scenarios with fixed PV and fan setting.

This suggest the potential benefit on thermal satisfaction by incorporating degree of adjustment for the designing of PV system. Further research with bigger sample size and wider temperature settings can be done for a more comprehensive analysis, and better design of PV system for education or commercial buildings.