Dr.

Saad Alabduljalil Kuwait University

ME 424 Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Mechanical Engineering Department

3-1 INTRODUCTION

 Human comfort is the principle reason for HVAC systems.

 Thehuman body differs from the insentient machine in tolerating only a narrow band of
temperature and in having appreciation of comfort.

 ASHRAE Comfort Standard defines comfort as ‘… that state of mind which express
satisfaction with thermal environment …’

 Defining the human comfort is not easy because of its subjective nature. In the long run a
person’s comfort can only be assessed by the question ‘Are you comfortable?’

 However, a fairly clear understanding of what is involved in providing comfort to most of the
occupants in a conditioned space has been developed.

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Ch. 3 Human Thermal Comfort 1/7
Dr. Saad Alabduljalil Kuwait University
ME 424 Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Mechanical Engineering Department

3-2 INFLUENCE FACTORS ON HUMAN COMFORT

A normal person feels most comfortable when the environment is at conditions where the
body can easily maintain a thermal balance with that environment.

 Thehuman body tries to maintain a thermal equilibrium with the environment by three heat
exchanges modes

 Evaporation (~25%).

 Radiation (~45%).

 Convection (~30%).

 Thefactors that influence the human thermal comfort can be divided into two groups: non-
environmental and environmental.

 The non-environmental factors are:

 Bodily activity.

 Clothing.

 The environmental factors are:

 Mean radiant temperature.

 Dry-bulb temperature.

 Relative humidity.

 Air velocity.

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Ch. 3 Human Thermal Comfort 2/7
Dr. Saad Alabduljalil Kuwait University
ME 424 Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Mechanical Engineering Department

3-3 BODILY ACTIVITY & METABOLISM

 Metabolism ≡ it refers to the group of physical and chemical processes by which a living cell
or organism converts oxygen and food into energy needed for important life processes.

A unit to express the metabolic rate per unit of body surface area is the met.

 Fora seated quite person, the metabolic rate is 1 met which equals to 18.4 Btu/h⋅ft2 (or 58.2
W/m2).

 Ifthe average effective surface area for an adult is 19.6 ft2 (or 1.82 m2), then this seated quite
person would generate approximately 360 Btu/h (or 106 W) of heat.

 The energy generated by a person’s metabolism varies considerably with that person’s
activity. Examples for body activities and the corresponding metabolism heat production.

Total heat production

Activity
Watts Btu/h
Sleeping 80.5 274.7
Sitting 117.2 400
Typing 161.2 550
Walking slowly 263.7 899.8

 In ordinary situations, the human body does not need more than 20% of this energy.
Therefore, most of the energy produced by the bodily metabolism must be dissipated as heat
to the environment.

3-4 CLOTHING

 The loss of heat from the body is much affected by the clothing worn.

 Ina room with a mixed of men and women wearing different clothes, comfort for everyone
may be almost impossible to achieve.

 Clothing insulation is usually described as a single equivalent uniform layer over the whole
body.

 The unit used to describe the thermal insulating quality of clothing worn is termed the clo and
has a physical value of 0.88 ft2⋅oF⋅h/Btu (or 0.155 m2⋅oC/W).

 Examples of thermal resistance for some items of clothing: t-shirt 0.09, light weight trousers
0.26, and light-weight jacket 0.22.

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Ch. 3 Human Thermal Comfort 3/7
Dr. Saad Alabduljalil Kuwait University
ME 424 Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Mechanical Engineering Department

3-5 MEAN RADIANT TEMPERATURE

 Onecan feel very cool and uncomfortable when surrounded by cool surfaces in a cave or
basement even when the air temperature is well within the normal comfort range.

 Many of us have experienced the chilling effect of sitting near a single-glazed window on a
very cold day as our body radiates heat to the cold surface.

 Likewise,
sun light or warm surfaces such as stoves or fireplaces may cause a person to feel
warmer than the surrounding air temperature would indicate.

 Mean radiant temperature MRT ≡ the average temperature of the surrounding surfaces.

 Combinations of air temperature and mean radiant temperature which together produce
comfort conditions which feel like 70oF (21.1oC) are given in the following figure.

 The figure suggests that for each degree of change in the mean radiant temperature from 70oF
(either up or down), the air temperature must change 1.4oF in the opposite direction to keep
the feeling of 70oF.

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Ch. 3 Human Thermal Comfort 4/7
Dr. Saad Alabduljalil Kuwait University
ME 424 Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Mechanical Engineering Department

3-6 DRY-BULB TEMPERATURE & RELATIVE HUMIDITY

 Fromthe previous section we understood that air temperature is only one part of what makes
you comfortable; the other part is the mean radiant temperature.

 Therefore,an adjusted dry-bulb temperature, which takes into account the effect of the
temperature of nearby surfaces, must be used.

 Operative temperature ≡ is the average of the mean radiant and air temperatures.

 Theoperative temperature and relative humidity which together produce human comfort
conditions are defined by ASHRAE in the following figure.

 Thehuman comfort zone shown in this figure is determined for people in typical summer
and winter clothing during light and primarily sedentary activity (≤ 1.2 met).

 Whatare the ranges of operative temperature and relative humidity that would produce
human thermal comfort?

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Ch. 3 Human Thermal Comfort 5/7
Dr. Saad Alabduljalil Kuwait University
ME 424 Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Mechanical Engineering Department

3-7 AIR VELOCITY

 Airmovement is very important and is related to air temperature and the part of the body
blown upon.

 What is the velocity range during which the air motion is unnoticed and considered still air?

 What is the velocity range during which the air motion is generally pleasant but noticeable?

 What is the velocity range during which the indoor air motion is potentially drafty and
annoying?

 Sometimes, the higher velocity range is desirable if the weather is very warm.

3-8 THE CHOICE OF INSIDE COMFORT DESIGN CONDITIONS

 Let us sum up the information we learned in the previous sections and choose the inside design
conditions that most likely would produce human thermal comfort.

 Mean radiant temperature?

 Air temperature?

 Relative humidity?

 Air velocity?

 Only two of these variables are usually controlled by the air-conditioning systems.

 The air-conditioning systems can only exercise direct automatic control over one of these two
variables.

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Ch. 3 Human Thermal Comfort 6/7
Dr. Saad Alabduljalil Kuwait University
ME 424 Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Mechanical Engineering Department

3-9 INDOOR AIR QUALITY & VENTILATION

 HVAC systems, in addition to maintaining thermal comfort, must also provide a clean,
healthy, and odor-free indoor environment.

 HVAC systems can provide acceptable indoor air quality through ventilation.

 Enough fresh air from outside must be supplied to reduce the accumulation of body odors,
other smells and the pollution from smoking to a socially acceptable level.

 The introduction of fresh air is also required to dilute the concentration of carbon dioxide to
a maximum acceptable value of 0.1%.

 Itis highly desirable to keep the quantity of fresh air handled by an air-conditioning system
to a minimum.

 Tokeep the fresh air quantity to a minimum without compromising the indoor air quality,
AHRAE Standard 62 is usually implemented.

 AHRAE Standard 62 describes ventilation rates for acceptable indoor air quality for different
types of conditioned spaces.

 Examples of AHRAE Standard 62 are given in Table 4-2.

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