MODULE 2: THERMAL COMFORT

Duration: April 2021

Session: Week 3
Number of Hours: 2 hours
Objective: To learn the basics of temperature and its role to human beings and learn
how to manipulate this factor in the design.

THERMAL COMFORT

Thermal comfort is affected by heat conduction, convection, radiation, and evaporative heat
loss. Thermal comfort is maintained when the heat generated by human metabolism is allowed
to dissipate, thus maintaining thermal equilibrium with the surroundings. Any heat gain or loss
beyond this generates a sensation of discomfort. It has been long recognized that the sensation
of feeling hot or cold is not just dependent on air temperature alone.

∙ can be defined as the complete physical and mental well being

∙ is a subset of the broad definition of comfort and relates to human and environmental
factors
∙ it is a complex are of study in fundamental terms, but for the designer the key issues
relate to the building and environmental factors that affect comfort
∙ affected by heat conduction, convection, radiation, and evaporative heat loss. ∙ maintained
when the heat generated by human metabolism is allowed to dissipate, thus maintaining
thermal equilibrium with the surroundings.
Factors determining thermal comfort
∙ Air temperature
∙ Mean radiant temperature
∙ Air movement / velocity
∙ Relative humidity
∙ Insulative clothing

Thermal stress
 ∙ The concept of thermal comfort is closely related to thermal stress.
∙ This attempts to predict the impact of solar radiation, air movement, and humidity for
military personnel undergoing training exercises or athletes during competitive events.
Operative temperature
∙ the average of the air dry-bulb temperature and of the mean radiant temperature at the
given place in a room. In addition, there should be low air velocities and no 'drafts', little
variation in the radiant temperatures from different directions in the room, humidity within
a comfortable range, and air temperatures in a height of 0.1 m above the floor should not
be more than 2 °C lower than the temperature at the place of the occupant's head. The
temperatures should also not change too rapidly across neither space nor time.
∙ In addition to environmental conditions, thermal comfort depends on the clothing and
activity level of a person.
∙ This standard amount of insulation required to keep a resting person warm in a windless
room at 70 °F (21.1 °C) is equal to one Clo. Clo units can be converted to R-value in SI
units (K/(W/m²) or RSI) by multiplying Clo by 0.155 (1 Clo = 0.155 RSI). (In imperial units
1 Clo corresponds to an R-value of 0.88 °F ft²hr/Btu.)