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11th Nordic Symposium on Building Physics, NSB2017, 11-14 June 2017, Trondheim, Norway

Fanger’s model of thermal comfort: a model suitable just for men?

The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling
Falk Schaudiensta, Frank U. Vogdta*
Assessing the feasibility of using the heat demand-outdoor
TU Berlin, Gustav-Meyer-Allee 25, 13355 Berlin, Germany
a

temperature function for a long-term district heat demand forecast

I. Andrića,b,c*, A. Pinaa, P. Ferrãoa, J. Fournierb., B. Lacarrièrec, O. Le Correc
Abstract
a
IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research - Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
The predicted mean vote (PMV) b
model of& thermal
Veolia Recherche Innovation,comfort
291 Avenueis created
Dreyfousby Fanger[1]
Daniel, and standardized
78520 Limay, France in EN ISO 7730
c
Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique,
[2]. The analyzed studies by Fanger show no significant difference in comfort conditions for4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes,
gender andFrance
age. Although
several studies said that women prefer higher temperatures, it was carried out with reference to the study of Yaglou
(1941) [3], that this effect was due to different kind of clothing. The gender and age differences found no direct access
toAbstract
the model of thermal comfort. In 2007 Karjalainen [4] elaborated the difference between men and women. So the
question raise if it is still appropriate to disregard the difference? Especially, since it is in our days useful and possible
toDistrictadjust the aretemperatures
heating networks commonly addressed of in thecertain
literature asrooms to effective
one of the most specificsolutionsuser groups.
for decreasing the
The article shows how the Predicted Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) diversify for different age groups
greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector. These systems require high investments which are returned through the heat and genders.
The data
sales. Duebasis is the
to the German
changed population
climate statistics.
conditions If the RMR
and building and the
renovation physical
policies, heat activity
demand isinthe
thebasis
futureofcould
the absolute
decrease,
metabolic
prolongingrate, one could find
the investment returnclear differences by thermal comfort between the sexes. The predicted theoretical results
period.
will
Thebe compared
main scope ofwith 120 data
this paper is to collected
assess the from the practice.
feasibility of using the heat demand – outdoor temperature function for heat demand
forecast. The district of Alvalade, located in Lisbon (Portugal), was used as a case study. The district is consisted of 665
©buildings
2017 Thethat
Authors. Published
vary in by Elsevierperiod
both construction Ltd. and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
Peer-review
renovation under responsibility
scenarios of the organizing
were developed committee of deep).
(shallow, intermediate, the 11thToNordic Symposium
estimate the error,onobtained
Buildingheat
Physics.
demand values were
compared with results from a dynamic heat demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors.
Keywords: Thermal
The results comfort;
showed Restingonly
that when metabolic rate;change
weather Gender;isAge; Predictedthe
considered, mean vote of error could be acceptable for some applications
margin
(the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
scenarios, the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
1.The
Introduction
value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the
decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination of weather and
renovation scenarios
Ole Fanger considered).
[1] published On the other
the Predicted hand,Vote
Mean function intercept
and the increased
Predicted for 7.8-12.7%
Percentage per decadefor(depending
of Dissatisfied on the
the evaluation
of thermal comfort in the 70s by means of studies of 1296 subjects. He did not postulate significant differences and
coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters for the scenarios considered, in
improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-30-31472143; fax: +49-30-31472150.
Cooling.
E-mail address: f.schaudienst@tu-berlin.de
Keywords: Heat demand; Forecast; Climate change
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 11th Nordic Symposium on Building Physics.

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 11th Nordic Symposium on Building Physics
10.1016/j.egypro.2017.09.658
130 Falk Schaudienst et al. / Energy Procedia 132 (2017) 129–134
2 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

gender and age. For that reason was regularly assumed for the metabolic rate a standardized person with a resting
metabolic rate of 58.15 W/m². A standardized person can be taken in level 1 (Screening) and 2 (Observation) for EN
ISO 8996 [5] when determining the thermal comfort by EN ISO 7730 [2]. However, the results for level 1 are on very
high risk of error and for level 2 are ± 20% accuracy. Level 3 reduces the accuracy to ±10%. But level 3 needed a
heart rate measurement. This kind of method is not useful in practice. This paper shows a method with the predicted
resting metabolic rate. This method takes into account the influence of age and sex.

2. Approach

The thermal comfort model according to Fanger in EN ISO 7730 is used and needed to evaluate the room climate.
For this purpose, a predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) is determined for an environmental climate:
4 – 0.2179·𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑉𝑉 2 )
𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = 100 – 95(−0.03353·𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 (1)

The predicted mean vote for thermal comfort (PMV) is determined from the heat balance of the human being with
his environment:
𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = [0.303 ∗ 𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒(– 0.036 𝑀𝑀) + 0.028](𝑞𝑞𝑀𝑀 – 𝑞𝑞𝑗𝑗 ) (2)

In typical climate situation for office buildings are round about 65-75% of the human heat loss qj given with
radiation and convection. The environmental climate and the clothing are relevant for these proportions of human
warmth. In the case of respiration and evaporation, the metabolic rate M is of importance just as in the case of heat
production qM. On the other hand the effective mechanical power W could be neglected in quite a lot of activities:

𝑞𝑞𝑀𝑀 = 𝑀𝑀– 𝑊𝑊 (3)

Since Gagge 1941 [6] the unit for thermal activity is defined with 1 met equal 58.15 W/m² surface area of the
individual. This corresponds to the resting metbolic rate (RMR). The measurement takes place in a relaxed sitting
position of a standardized person. Ainsworth [7,8] defines MET as the ratio of work metabolic rate to RMR:

𝑀𝑀 = 𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀 ∗ 𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 (4)

Thus, the metabolic rate can be calculated with regression equations for the RMR. A large number of formulas are
available in the literature for the predicted resting metabolic rate. The most equations use weight Wb [kg] and the
height Hb [m]. The most well-known regression equation is the Harris-Benedict equation [9]:

1.163
𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀: 𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 [𝑊𝑊] = ∗ (66.47 + 13.75 ∗ 𝑊𝑊𝑏𝑏 + 500 ∗ 𝐻𝐻𝑏𝑏 − 6.75 ∗ 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎) (5)
24

1.163
𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊𝑊: 𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 [𝑊𝑊] = ∗ (665.09 + 9.56 ∗ 𝑊𝑊𝑏𝑏 + 184 ∗ 𝐻𝐻𝑏𝑏 − 4.67 ∗ 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎) (6)
24

In the study by Frankenfield [10] the equations are examined with regard to their robustness for normal-weight and
overweight persons, especially the formula of Schofield [11] recommended by the WHO [12] and the Mifflin-St
Joer equation [13], which is used especially in the United States. It should be noted that some of the equations are
termed the "predicted basal metabolic rate" (pBMR). The equations, however, were constructed in the experimental
setup under the conditions of the RMR. In addition, the work metabolic rate can also be calculated by using pBMR.
Instead of the factor MET for Physical Activities (PA), the factor Physical Activity Ratio (PAR) is used [12,14].
 Falk Schaudienst
Author et al.
name / Energy / Energy
Procedia 00Procedia 132 (2017) 129–134
(2017) 000–000 131
3

Fig. 1. ratio of RMR to PPD with 22°C, 50% r.h., 0.05 m/s, light office work.

In order to relate the personal RMR to the surface of the individual, a further empirical equation, which derives the
physiognomy from the weight Wb and the height Hb, is required. For this the DuBois formula of 1916 [15] has proved
its worth. Even-equations, which have been produced with laser scans using the current state of the art, deviate by ±
1.3% for normal-weight persons:

𝐴𝐴𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷 = 0.202 ∗ 𝑊𝑊𝑏𝑏0.425 ∗ 𝐻𝐻𝑏𝑏0.725 (7)

The metabolic rate is individualized with the regression equations to the surface and the RMR. Metabolism takes
into account both age, gender and the individual body composition.

3. Methods

In this study the approach was applied to the data of the population statistics of Germany [16], with the aim to
develop a group-specific methodology for the prediction of the thermal comfort. The statistics were collected in 2013
within census on a representation basis. Therefore gender and age-specific data on the weight and height are available,
which are published as a median in groups with a range of 5 years.

Table 1. Groups of the population statistics of Germany.

Males Females
Age [years] Number [thousand] Height [m] Weight [kg] Number [thousand] Height [m] Weight [kg]
18 - 20 520 1,81 75,7 462 1,68 60,9
20 – 25 1539 1,81 78,9 1357 1,68 62,9
25 – 30 1652 1,81 81,6 1484 1,67 64,7
30 – 35 1693 1,80 83,7 1597 1,67 66,4
35 – 40 1587 1,80 85,6 1491 1,67 67,5
40 – 45 2024 1,80 86,4 1797 1,67 68,1
45 – 50 2375 1,80 86,6 2122 1,67 68,8
50 – 55 2265 1,79 86,8 2101 1,66 69,7
55 – 60 1977 1,78 86,8 1944 1,65 70,4
60 – 65 1889 1,77 86,6 1905 1,64 71,3
65 – 70 1508 1,76 85,4 1575 1,64 71,2
70 – 75 1861 1,75 84,1 2068 1,64 70,8
>75 2617 1,73 80,4 3687 1,62 68,3
132 Falk Schaudienst et al. / Energy Procedia 132 (2017) 129–134
4 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

The group-specific approach was examined for its applicability by means of a case study with students. In the case
study the climate of the meeting room was recorded for 1.5 h. After an acclimatization time of 0.5 h, the participants
got a questionnaire to fill in accordance with EN ISO 10551 [17] and ASHRAE 2010 [18]. In addition, age, weight,
height and gender were questioned here:

Table 2. Research design of survey.

Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4
Air temperature [°C] 21.0 21.0 23.1 20.4
Mean radiant temperature [°C] 19.5 19.4 21.3 18
Relative air velocity [m/s] 0.09 0.07 0.14 0.08
Relative humidity [%] 45.8 29.2 44.0 18
Males Females Males Females Males Females Males Females
Number 13 12 16 25 17 15 8 14
Clothing [clo] 0.84 0.91 0.79 0.91 0.72 0.73 0.72 0.89
Age [years] 27.0 28.3 25.2 25.3 25.6 25.8 26.5 25
Height [m] 1.78 1.68 1.83 1.69 1.81 1.68 1.80 1.64
Weight [kg] 80.2 61.4 82.1 62.1 75.8 59.3 78.3 56.7

For the calculation, the MET factor 1.5 was calculated for kind of light office activity according to the Compendium
(11580, 11585 and 21000, 21005) [8]. However, it is also possible to use a factor of 1.8 (09060, 09065).

4. Results

This approach is suitable to represent the difference in the feeling of comfort among the sexes for normal weighted
persons. In addition, this approach takes into account age-specific differences in the metabolism of normal weightily
individuals and the age-specific differences in the whole population:

Fig. 2. (a) RMR according to age groups of the German population; (b) Ratio of PPD to age groups with 22°C, 50% r.h., 0.05 m/s, 0.9 clo, 1.5 MET.

Table 3 shows the results from the evaluated questionnaire (a), the calculation for each person's individual
metabolic rate over the RMR (b), the German census category calculation (c), and the calculation by standard person
(d).
 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 5
Falk Schaudienst et al. / Energy Procedia 132 (2017) 129–134 133

Table 3. Calculation of case study.

Questionnaires (a) Participants (b) Group of census (c) Standard person (d)
Males Females Males Females Males Females Males Females
Metabolic rate 69,00 61.48 68.79 61.63 69.78 69.78
Session 1

PMV -0.15 -0.92 -0.56 -0.79 -0.57 -0.78 -0.53 -0.41

PPD [%] 5.49 22.76 11.61 18.03 11.82 17.78 10.85 8.48
Metabolic rate 69.03 61.77 68.79 61.63 69.78 69.78
Session 2

PMV 0.00 -0.76 -0.76 -0.88 -0.77 -0.89 -0.73 -0.51

PPD [%] 5.00 17.17 17.2 21.47 17.56 21.76 16.12 10.36
Metabolic rate 68.28 62.07 68.79 61.63 69.78 69.78
Session 3

PMV 0.35 -0.27 -0.46 -0.74 -0.45 -0.76 -0.40 -0.38

PPD [%] 7.55 6.51 9.51 16.47 9.17 17.22 8.38 8.06
Metabolic rate 68.55 63.07 68.79 62.57 69.78 69.78
Session 4

PMV -0.75 -1.43 -1.24 -1.16 -1.23 -1.19 -1.17 -0.82

PPD [%] 18.49 45.51 37.18 33.43 36.53 34.86 33.95 19.06

The case study shows a clear discrepancy between the standard person and the survey of female participants. The
calculated metabolic rate from the case study is quite well conform with the categories from the German census.
Between the survey and the RMR calculation, there is a deviation of 12% from PPD for women and a deviation for
men of up to 19%. For the calculation by standard person men up to 16% and for women up to 26.5%.

5. Discussions

The case study shows that depending on the environmental conditions the calculation with a standard person has a
high risk of error according to EN ISO 8996. The risk of error can be reduced by dividing into groups according to
the population statistics. In the case study the expected significant reduction could not be proved. One reason for that
could be seen in the small number of test persons per session. Another reason for that can be seen in the
inhomogeneous temperature field of the meeting room which is characterized by the difference between air
temperature and radiation temperature.
The selection of factor MET for Physical Activities (PA) can lead to considerable discrepancies between collected
data and the predicted percentage of dissatisfied in practice. Accordingly, for the application as a predictor of the limit
temperature it is recommended to choose the critical value for PA.

6. Conclusion

For group-specific usage of rooms, this approach to determining the optimum room temperature is well and better
suited than the calculation with a standard person since the standard person according to current knowledge
corresponds to a normal-weight healthy man between the ages of 25 and 30 years.
The results of the calculations from the population statistics reflect the experience from the practice: elderly people
and women prefer a higher ambient temperature. The case study shows that, in practice, the difference in metabolism
is compensated by the higher degree of clothing.
In order to reduce the risk of error, further research with a defined environmental climate is required and an increase
in the accuracy of the PA-factors for calculating the metabolic rate from the RMR.
134 Falk Schaudienst et al. / Energy Procedia 132 (2017) 129–134
6 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

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