1.

THERMAL COMFORT
 Our life cycle comprises Activity, fatigue and recovery.
 Recovery is essential to counter balance against mental and physical fatigue through
recreation, rest and sleep.
 This can be affected by unfavorable climatic conditions and the resulting stress on body
and mind causes discomfort, loss of efficiency and breakdown of health.
 Thermal comfort is the condition of mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal
environment and is assessed by subjective evaluation (ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55).
 The task of the designer is to create the best possible indoor climate or even the
environment for the users as they judge the quality of design based on physical and
emotional point of view.
2. INDICES OF THERMAL COMFORT
 Thermal comfort refers to the subjective feeling of temperature in an environment.
 Optimum levels of thermal comfort helps in maximizing productivity.
 Measurement of thermal comfort levels are complex and many indices have been
proposed over the years.
3. THERMAL COMFORT SCALE
 A single scale which combines the effects of various thermal comfort factors (such as air
temperature, humidity, air movement and radiation) is called a THERMAL INDEX or
COMFORT SCALE.
 The designer has to handle four such factors to understand the effect of climatic
conditions on the body’s heat dissipation process.
 The factors:
 Air temperature
 Humidity
 Air movement
 Radiation
 Subjective factors.
 To create such a scale, experiments were done in specially built rooms where climatic
conditions could be produced.
 The subjects were placed in the room and were asked to fill questionnaires after each
variation in the conditions according to a set scale ranging from ‘very hot’ to ‘very cold’.
 The answers were then evaluated statistically and plotted on a graph to find relationship
among the factors.
 At least 30 or more scales were devised in this process.
4. EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE
 It is defined as the temperature of a still and saturated atmosphere which would, in the
absence of radiation, produce the same effect as the temperature in question.
 The first comfort scale was produced by Houghton and Yaglou in 1923, working at the
American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers.
 Their findings were plotted on a psychometric chart, producing ‘equal comfort lines’.
 This new scale was named Effective Temperature (ET Scale).
 The different factors determining thermal comfort – air temperature, humidity and air
movements are combined together into a single index – Effective temperature
 Effective temperature is the temperature in an environment with 100% humidity and no
air movements which will induce the same level of thermal comfort as in the present
situation
 For example, if the effective temperature is said to be 30°C, it means that the thermal
comfort is equivalent to one is an environment with temperature 30°C, 100% humidity
and no air movements
 But effective temperature does not take into consideration, the effect of radiant heat
energy.
 SHOW CHART FROM BOOK
5. BIOCLIMATIC CHART
 Under over heated conditions when metabolic rates are low (light work), which already
produce discomfort, it was found out that the DBT values correspond better with
subjective judgments than ET values.
 On this basis and similar other doubts, V. Olgyay concluded that it is pointless to build a
single figure index as each of the four components can be controlled by different means.
 Thus a bioclimatic chart was created in terms of DBT and RH, and by additional lines it
was shown how comfort zone was pushed up by the presence air movement and lowered
by radiation.
6. REVISIONS OF ET SCALE
 The ET scale was by ‘equal comfort lines’ drawn on the psychrometric chart.
 But it was found out that this method underestimates the significance of moderate air
movements at high temperatures and at the same time overestimates the adverse effects
of higher humidities.
 Keeping these observations in mind, a nomogram was constructed which defines ET
directly from DBT and WBT readings.
 Later, DBT was replaced with the Globe temperature (GT) to account for radiant heat
exchange.
7. DEFINTIONS
 NOMOGRAM : A graphic representation that consists of several lines marked off to
scale and arranged in such a way that by using a straightedge to connect known values
on two lines an unknown value can be read at the point of intersection with another line.
 MEAN RADIANT TEMPERATURE: If all surfaces in an environment were uniformly
at this temperature, it would produce the same net radiant heat balance as the given
environment with its various surface temperatures. Device used is a globe thermometer.
 GLOBE THERMOMETER: An ordinary thermometer enclosed in a matt black painted
copper globe of 150mm diameter. It has inertia of 15 min, but after this time, its reading
 gives a combination of air temperature and the effect of any received or emitted radiation.
If the air is warm and opposing surfaces are cold, radiation from the globe will be emitted
and the reading will be lower than air temperature and vice versa.

8. CORRECTED EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE:

 The ET scale basically combined air temperature and humidity (later air movement was
added) but it lacked the effects of radiation.
 Thus, CET scale (Corrected Effective Temperature) was created by adding radiation
effects.
 It is the most widely used and the most understood scale at present and the results are
accurate under most conditions.

9. FINDING THE CET:

 Measure the globe thermometer temperature
 Measure the WBT
 Measure the air velocities with an anemometer.
 Locate GT on the LHS of nomogram.
 Locate WBT on RHS.
 Connect the two points with a line.
 Select the appropriate curve to the air velocity.
 Mark the point of intersection between air velocity and the drawn line.
 Read off the value of the short inclined line‐ CET.

10. KATA THERMOMETER:

 The word “kata” is a Greek word meaning “down”.
 The kata thermometer is an alcohol thermometer with a glass bulb.
 The readings on the stem are marked from 35 to 38.
 Before taking the readings, the bulbs are immersed in hot water to warm them when the
alcohol rises into a small reservoir at the top of the instrument.
 Then the instrument is suspended in air at the point of observation.
 The time in seconds required for the spirit to fall from 38 to 35 is noted with a stop
watch.
 The length of time depends upon the “cooling power” of the air.
 Each Kata has a “factor” called Kata Factor marked on the stem. This factor is
determined for each instrument by the manufactures.
 Kata Factor divided by the cooling time gives the rate of cooling. The instrument is used
for recording low
11. AIR VELOCITY:
 High air velocity is measured by an instrument, called anemometer and is expressed
in meters per second (m/s).

12. THE GLOBE THERMOMETER:

 It is used for direct measurement of the mean radiant temperature of the
surroundings.
 The instrument consists of a hollow copper bulb 15 cm in diameter and is coated
outside with matt black paint which absorbs the radiant heat from the surrounding
objects.
 A specially calibrated mercury thermometer is inserted, with its bulb at the center of
the globe. This thermometer registers a higher temperature than the ordinary air one
because it is affected both by the air temperature and radiant heat.
 The globe thermometer is also influenced by the velocity of air movement.
 Location of thermal sensors Thermal-sensing instruments should be located at the
workstation so that the actual conditions of heat exposure are measured.
 In those zones where the worker spends substantial amount of time, measurements
should be taken periodically, three or four times for a work shift could be adequate.
 Where the employee moves through a large area, several zones may be involved.
 In such cases the thermal sensors could be located in several points to collect data
from these different zones.