Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy & Buildings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enbuild

Indoor thermal comfort assessment using PCM based storage system

integrated with ceiling fan ventilation: Experimental design and
response surface approach
M. Alizadeh, S.M. Sadrameli∗
Process Engineering Department, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, P. O. Box 14115-114, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The integration of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) in buildings as a potential method to improve indoor
Received 22 October 2018 thermal comfort can be achieved via free cooling/heating approach. This paper presents the results of
Revised 3 February 2019
a study on indoor thermal comfort and energy efficiency regarding the PCM’s positive role when ap-
Accepted 17 February 2019
plied to the new constructive solutions, inside a building with a ceiling fan-assisted ventilation system.
Available online 18 February 2019
The scope was driven to investigate the potential of the solution for overheating/overcooling mitigation.
Keywords: The thermal performance of the proposed system was experimentally evaluated by comparing the be-
Free cooling/heating haviour of a prototype test room (including PCM panel), with the behaviour of a similar prototype test
Phase change material room, in which no PCM was added. First the experiments are conducted in an artificial climate inside
Ceiling fan a laboratory environment chamber which was controlled by harmonic and linearly rising/falling temper-
Thermal comfort ature changing processes. Experiments were performed based on 5 level RSM CCD method to quantify
Response surface methodology
the potential effects of using PCM panels and to determine individual/interactive effect of parameters on
thermal discomfort index, PPD. Results indicate that minimum discomfort level can be achieved when
inlet air temperature and humidity, fan rotating speed and PCM slab height and thickness were set to
29, 48%, 115 rpm, 31 cm and 2.6 cm, respectively. PPD was obtained 4.1% in the optimized condition. Then
optimised tests rooms were subjected to realistic daily temperature profiles during winter and summer.
In summer case, the experiments proved that the PCM application in one of the rooms lead to an over-
heating reduction of 13.83% representing a PCM efficiency of 56%. Under the winter condition during two
months, the experiments showed proposed hybrid system can averagely reduce discomfort level around
2.61% corresponding a PCM efficiency of about 35.49%. Based on the results, proposed system have the
potential to shift cooling/heating energy demand away from peak hours.
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction ings with minimal electricity consumption by avoiding the en-

Residential and commercial buildings are among the few sec-
tors that possess large energy saving potential by means of re-
newable energy utilization, green building concepts and building
energy management [1]. The increasing demand for energy along
with worldwide environmental threat has drawn the attention of
researchers to devise the necessary steps for energy efficiency and
sustainability in buildings. In order to reduce the energy consump-
tion and to address the global environmental issues in buildings,
more importance is given toward the implementation of energy
efficient passive cooling technologies [2–5]. Passive cooling tech-
nology adopts the principle of supplying cool air to the build-
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: mostafa.alizadeh@modares.ac.ir, mostafa.alizadeh@live.com
(M. Alizadeh), sadrameli@modares.ac.ir (S.M. Sadrameli).
ergy intensive mechanical type air conditioning systems [6,7].
Although passive cooling is energy efficient, this technique has lim-
itations regarding the controlling of thermal comfort conditions,
architectural restrictions of the building envelope and security
requirements due to facade openings. Those disadvantages of pas-
sive cooling could be abolished by free cooling ventilation systems
[1,8–10].
The main principle of free cooling is to either receive or re-
lease an adequate amount of cooling energy during phase transi-
tion at constant temperature with low amplitude of temperature
[1,9]. Free cooling technology requires a storage unit which stores
the thermal energy either by varying the internal energy of the
storage medium (sensible heat storage) or by varying the phase of
storage material (latent heat storage) or by both these processes
[2]. When the phase change materials (PCMs) loses its cool en-
ergy, it gets discharged and to charge it again, cool ambient air
is allowed to pass through it during the night or early morning

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.02.020
0378-7788/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
298 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313
hours. Advantage of free cooling over other ventilative cooling is
that the accumulated cold can be extracted whenever it is needed
by circulating ambient or room air through storage unit [11,12]. For
the free cooling, three main criteria need to be satisfied (i) the air
outlet temperature (air supply temperature to the building) should
meet the thermal comfort conditions in the building (ii) cooling
time (i.e. discharging time) should be equal or more than the cool-
ing period demand during the day time and (iii) the charging of
the PCMs should be completed (meeting the daytime thermal en-
ergy) during night-time (i.e. charging time) [1].
The consolidated review on the experimental, numerical inves-
tigations carried out exclusively on PCM based free cooling appli-
cations by several reviewers [1,2,8–11,13,14]. Inard et al. [15] anal-
ysed 14 office rooms in low-energy buildings to evaluate energy
savings by free cooling by enhanced night-time ventilation. Zhou
et al. [16] and Raj et al. [14] analyzed the heat transfer process
between HTF and PCM by developing a modular heat exchanger
for the free cooling application. Wang et al. [17–19] analyzed the
charging and discharging process of a free cooling system for hot
and dry climatic conditions. Panchabikesan et al. [9] presented the
first pilot scale experimental work reporting the thermal perfor-
mance of the PCM based free cooling system under real ambient
conditions in a hot – dry climate. The impact of HTF mass flow
rate/temperature, PCM plate thickness, melting front and cooling
power was numerically investigated by Darzi et al. [20]. Tham-
bidurai et al. [21] experimentally investigated the potential of free
cooling application in reducing the room temperature during day
hours using an inorganic PCM with the phase change temperature
of 29 °C. The performance of PCM-based free cooling system with
RT 27 as PCM was experimentally and numerically studied by Ra-
jagopal et al. [22,23]. Osterman et al. [24] numerically analyzed
the functioning of a stand-alone hybrid system comprised of PCM
(RT22 HC) based TES tank and solar air heater on an annual basis
for year round thermal management of a building space.
Thermal comfort depends on many factors, in which, temper-
ature, humidity, and air speed are among the most important
ones. In cooling scenarios, although low temperature is the first
choice for comfort control, moderate air speed as a breeze can en-
hance thermal comfort at higher temperature by wind chill effect
[25–27]. In residential and commercial buildings, temperature con-
trol is achieved by using air conditioners, while air speed can be
increased by using ceiling fans [25]. The proper use of a ceil-
ing fan in an air-conditioned space can result in better thermal
comfort and energy savings [28–31]. Most fan studies have fo-
cused on the air flow volume induced by ceiling fans, but not
on the room air movement distribution, and particularly not on
the distribution in the occupied zone. Laboratory [30–35] and field
[36] studies compared energy efficiency index and indoor airflow
distributions from different fan speeds and blade diameters. The
studies indicated that the vertical temperature difference decreases
with increasing fan speed, and that wider fan blades increase air-
flow coverage with increased energy efficiency [37], and that fans
with a larger diameter and lower rotation speed reduce noise [38].
There has been considerable effort to improve the design of the
fan blades in order to increase the flow volume, uniformity along
the fan radius, and to increase the air movement coverage area.
Adeeb et al. [39] focused on the number of blades and found that
increasing the number of blades resulted in a higher flow vol-
ume. Afaq et al. [30] measured the effect of rake angles on the
flow volume and found that a 6° upward rake angle (fan blades
tilted above the horizontal level) provided the highest flow vol-
ume. Jain et al. [34] found that introducing winglets and spikes
on the blade tip increased flow volume. However ceiling fans do
not provide real ventilation, as there is no introduction of fresh
air [28,29,40,41]. Ceiling fans only circulate air within a room for
the purpose of reducing the perceived temperature by method of
evaporation of perspiration on the skin of the occupants [25]. Al-
izadeh and Sadrameli performed a numerical CFD model to study
ceiling fan effect on thermal comfort inside the room. They sim-
ulated a large office room and optimized its performance using
RSM method. Based on above mentioned literature, ceiling fan can
only increase thermal comfort by wind chilling effect but cannot
improve indoor temperature. The use of phase change materials
(PCMs) may be a suitable solutions linked to the ceiling fan for
overheating reduction and to provide better indoor thermal com-
fort.
The aim of the research was to investigate the effectiveness of
PCM in reducing the zone air temperature and improving thermal
comfort in an experimental room under running ceiling fan. Two
identical test rooms were considered for cooling application. One
test room was used as the control while the other was used as a
retrofit room containing PCM storage medium. Two series of ex-
periments were performed. The first one was carried out in a fully
laboratory conditions and second series of tests was performed
for more realistic conditions. For laboratory conditions, response
surface method was used to evaluate and optimize proposed sys-
tem performance. The second series of tests were performed for
more realistic conditions. This study was focused on the Summer
and Winter season of Tabriz (Iran) area. In each experiment, in-
door thermal comfort was recorded and compared with control
case.
2. Methodology
2.1. PCM Selection
In the building applications, the PCMs with a phase change
temperature (18–30 °C) are preferred to meet the need of thermal
comfort [27]. In this study, commercial available PCM S27 was used
because of its little volume expansion during the melting process
(lesser than 4%) and a suitable temperature range for air condi-
tioner between 22 °C and 24 °C (Table 1).
2.2. Experimental setup
The tests were performed using two identical fully instru-
mented test rooms with interior dimensions of 1.2 m × 1.2 m ×
1.5 m and designed to operate independently [40]. The test rooms
are located at University of Tarbiat Modares, Iran (see Fig. 1). Both
rooms were elevated 0.5 m above the ground and insulated using
0.1 m thick pink glass wool in the walls and ceiling and 0.06 m of
wood plastic composite under the floor to reduce heat loss from
the rooms [39]. The first, room referred to as R1, is used as the
base case for all experiments throughout this study and has ordi-
nary ceiling fan. In second room, referred to as R2, PCM containers
installed 3 cm above the ceiling fan. Each Room was equipped with
an AC unit to provide cooling demand as required and a power me-
ter to monitor the electricity consumption. An axial 3-blade ceil-
ing fan (Maker: Aramis; Model: 3215) was installed in the middle
of the ceiling with the mid-plane of the blades 30 cm below the
ceiling. The fan measures 45 cm in diameter with blades that are
20 cm long, 2 mm thick and have width of 7 cm at the base and
9 cm at the tip. The pitch angle of the blades is 6 and the de-
flection of their tips due to gravity is 1 cm relative to the base.
Fan power was 20 W and equipped with a DC inverter to pro-
vide different rotating direction. A programmable logic controller
(PLC) Siemens model S7-224CPU was used to change fan rotating
direction during day (7 Am–10 Pm) and night (10Pm–7Am). 3 Alu-
minum PCM slabs with dimension of 20 cm × 10 cm were installed
between the ceiling and fan. The directions of the airflow by ceil-
ing fan were the upward and downward directions. Fig. 2 shows
the airflow measurement points. The air velocity measurement
 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313 299

Table 1
PCM Thermo-physical properties.

Melting temperature Density Specific heat Thermal conductivity Viscosity Thermal expansion Latent heat of fusion

(°C) (kg/m3 ) (kJ/kg) (W/m K) (mm2 /s) (1/K) (kJ/kg)

22–25 1530 2200 0.54 111.1 0.001 183

Fig. 1. The concept of proposed system.

the average of each 15 min was determined and is presented in

the results section.

2.3. Design of experiment

Design of experiments is a systematic approach for distinguish-

ing the importance of process variables, their interaction and con-
trolling them toward the optimum response. There are four classes
of experimental designs: mixture experiments, factorial design,
combined design, and response surface. Response surface method-
ology (RSM) is applied for multivariate optimization with the mini-
mum number of experiments. The accomplishment of experiments
with reduced runs leads to less consumption of material and time,
likewise less laboratory work. If all variables are assumed measur-
able, the response surface can be expressed as follows:

Fig. 2. Experimental setup (Whithout PCM). y = f ( x1 , x2 , . . . , xk ) (1)

The aim is to optimize y. It is assumed that the independent
variables are continuous and controllable by experiments with
was conducted by a three-dimensional ultrasonic anemometer
negligible errors. It is mandatory to find an appropriate approxima-
(Aramis, AN360). T type thermocouples were used for all temper-
tion for the true functional relationship between independent vari-
ature measurements inside and outside the experimental rooms.
ables and the response surface. Second order polynomial is usually
All thermocouples were calibrated against a reference thermome-
considered as a full model in RSM:
ter (Ebro TFX430) from 0 to 60 °C. A light bulb was installed on the
wall and connected to a dimmers and digital timer. This arrange- 
k 
k 
k

ment simulated a full daily cycle (day and night) for total of 24 h. y = β0 + βi xi + βii x2ii + βi j xi x j + ε (2)
i=1 i=1 i=1
Temperature was collected using the data logging system(Agilent
34970A). It collected temperatures in 20 s increments. Inlet air where y is the response (PPD), β s are regression coefficients, xi is
supply and outlet air exhaust were provided to introduce fresh air a coded independent variable, ε is the error and k is the number
inside the rooms. Inlet air specifications including air velocity, tem- of factors. The most common response surface methodology is the
perature and humidity were measured using Lutron Anemometer central composite design [13]. In this design each variable has 5
model Am-4205. levels; a center point, two factorial points with the distance of 1
Thermal Comfort Datalogger-HD32.2 PCE Instruments was used unit from center point, and two star points that allow estimation
for measuring and recording the room indoor environmental pa- of curvature and have the distance of a from center point. Four se-
rameters such as operative temperature, relative humidity, air ve- lected control factors and their levels are shown in Table 2. The
locity in order to derive predicted mean vote (PMV/PPD). Three ex- relation between the coded and actual values is as following equa-
ternal sensors were connected to the device which was placed in tion:
middle of room, at height 0.4 m as recommended by ASHRAE [13]. xi − xcp
Xi = (3)
The data values were measured and recorded every minute and x i
300 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313

Table 2 sen temporal characteristic. The required humidity in each exper-

Original variables in the CCD design.
iment was provided by a humidifier (Ultrasonic 600 Hirad Co.).
Name Units −1 Level +1 Level −α +α In addition, a fan with 20 W power was used to create appropri-
A: Inlet air temp. C 28 32 26 34 ate air velocity. In each test, indoor temperature, PMV and PPD
B: Inlet air humidity % 35 65 20 80 were recorded every 20 s. Experiments were performed for 3 h.
C: Fan rotating speed RPM 90 130 70 150 The second series of tests was performed for more realistic con-
D: Fan height cm 25 35 20 40 ditions, i.e. air was taken from the outside of a laboratory building
E: PCM thickness cm 0.75 2.25 0 3
and daily variations of air temperature were closer to ambient air
temperature variations. The experiment was done from June 1st
where Xi is the coded value of each factor; xcp is the value of the to 5th in summer and December 1th to 5th in Winter case. The
xi at the center point obtained from the preliminary experiments; weather station records hourly outdoor dry bulb temperature, out-
and xi presents the step change. door humidity, rain rate, solar radiation, wind speed and direction
As the last step, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used and barometric pressure. Indoor air temperature were recorded ev-
through a statistical analysis software (Design Expert 8.0.5b) for ery 10 min. This study was focused on the summer and Winter
graphical analyses of the data to obtain the interaction between season of Tabriz area. During summer time of the year, the daily
the process variables and the responses. The statistical significance average maximum outdoor temperature is 28.9 °C and the daily
was checked by the Fisher F-test, and model terms were evaluated average minimum outdoor temperature is 20.2 °C. During Winter,
by the p-value (probability) with 95% confidence level. The qual- the daily average maximum outdoor temperature is 18.5 °C and
ity of the fit polynomial model was expressed by the coefficient of the daily average minimum outdoor temperature is 7 °C This large
determination R2 and adjusted R2 in the same program. The pro- temperature variation should allow PCM to melt completely dur-
cess variables investigated were inlet air temperature(X1), humid- ing discharging period and solidify during charging process, and
ity(X2), fan speed (X3), distance between ceiling and fan(X5) and thus work efficiently. For winter cases, a heater with input power
PCM slab thickness(X4). Three responses was PPD% as mentioned of 150 W was provided to keep room temperature above 18 °C.
above.
3. Results and Discussion
2.4. Experimental procedure
3.1. Velocity measurement results
Two series of experiments were performed. The first one was
carried out in a fully laboratory conditions, i.e. inlet air tempera- Upward airflow
ture (which can be treated as an independent variable) was set by In the first case, anemometer was set at 10 cm above the ceil-
means of an air conditioning system, according to arbitrary cho- ing fan. Based on the Fig. 3, the airflow pulled up by the ceiling

Fig. 3. Velocity component during upward airflow.

 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313
Fig. 4. Velocity component during upward airflow.
fan sweeps along the ceiling. As the distance between ceiling and
fan increases, air velocity in X direction becomes smaller. This can
be attributed to the decreasing outward air velocity from the ceil-
ing fan. The air, discharge by ceiling fan, is spread over the ceiling
of the room and as the distance increases, ceiling surface effect
on air movement decreases. The maximum value of velocity in X
direction is located at x = 20 cm. In addition, maximum air speed
increases toward the center of ceiling and reaches to its maximum
value in fan blade span. This means that maximum speed occurs at
blade tip. The maximum value also increases with decreasing the
distance. This can be explained by accelerating suction flow when
the ceiling surface is closer to ceiling fan. In the case of Z direction,
the velocity decreases as moving away from the fan. The highest
value of velocity in Z direction observed when the distance be-
tween the ceiling fan and ceiling surface increases. Higher distance
between the fan and ceiling increases suction air volume and as
result, increases air velocity. In all cases, no significant differences
for velocity component were observed at Z = −10 cm.
For downward airflow at Z = +10 cm, the results are in the
same trend as upward air flow (Fig. 4). At Z = −10 cm, velocity
component in X direction becomes larger toward the fan center
and reducing the distance increases the intensity of it. It can be ex-
plained by increasing rate of the wind flowing toward the ceiling
fan rotational center. The highest velocity in Z direction happens
nearer to the ceiling fan rotating circle and its maximum becomes
smaller as reducing the distance. In smaller distance, air converges
around the ceiling fan rotating circle and accelerates in the hor-
izontal direction. Based on the figures, significant results can be
obtained for the distance smaller than 30 cm.
301
3.2. Temperature measurement results
Vertical profile of temperature was shown in Fig. 5 at different
fan speed and height. Based on the figure, 0.1–2.1 °C difference in
temperature was observed when ceiling fan was turned off. Tem-
perature variation was reduced by increasing fan speed and its dis-
tance from ceiling surface. The higher rotational speed, the more
beneficial to moderate the vertical temperature difference. Increas-
ing fan speed required more power to rotate and as a result, room
temperature slightly increased.
Fig. 6 shows PCM temperature at different fan rotation speed.
It is expected that the higher rotation speed can enhance con-
vection flow heat transfer and thus speed melting process. From
experimental results, at each fan speed, the PCM starts to transit
phase from solid to liquid by absorbing heat from the air. From
heat transfer point of view, due to the phase change involved, the
heat transfer coefficient on the PCM is greatly improved such that
the PCM side is not the main thermal resistance. Therefore due
to the flow rate increase, the heat transfer enhancement on the
air side can significantly affect the overall heat transfer and thus
greatly reduce the completion time of phase change. Once the PCM
is liquefied, the PCM temperature increases.
Fig. 7 shows inlet air temperature effect on PCM temperature
during melting process. Based on the figure, the significant tem-
perature difference between air and PCM and small sensible heat
transfer involved, the PCM can all quickly approach to transition
temperature point. After that, at each inlet temperature, the PCM
starts to transit phase from solid to liquid by absorbing air heat.
The higher air temperature can enhance the overall heat transfer
302 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313

Table 3
Model summary statistics.

Std. Adjusted Predicted

Source Dev. R-Squared R-Squared R-Squared PRESS

Linear 2 0.8327 0.8137 0.7936 217.68
2FI 2.12 0.8551 0.7912 0.8017 209.21
Quadratic 1.12 0.9653 0.9413 0.9319 145.68 Suggested
Cubic 1.05 0.9853 0.9484 −0.8313 1931.83 Aliased

Table 4
ANOVA report for the RSM model.

Sum of F p-value

Source Squares Value Prob > F

Model 1018.26 40.3 < 0.0 0 01 Significant
A-A: Inlet air temp. 475.13 376.13 < 0.0 0 01
B-B: Inlet air humidity 53.04 41.99 < 0.0 0 01
C-C: Fan rotating speed 37.17 29.43 < 0.0 0 01
D-D: Fan height 98.6 10.75 0.00305
E-E: PCM thickness 214.46 169.77 < 0.0 0 01
AB 12.7 10.05 0.0036
AC 0.75 4.18 0.0471
AD 7.20E−03 5.00E−02 0.547
AE 7.49 5.93 0.0213
BC 2.55 2.74 0.0657
BD 1.51E−03 8.50E−02 0.7726
BE 0.025 1.1 0.116
CD 0.097 0.077 0.7839
CE 0.029 2.114 0.081
DE 0.015 0.0012 0.9131
A^2 9.97 7.89 0.0088
B^2 79.32 62.79 < 0.0 0 01
C^2 20.58 16.29 0.0 0 04
D^2 2.05 0.54 0.2128
E^ 2 4.28 2.19 0.076
Residual 36.63
Lack of Fit 36.1 0.51 0.68 Not significant
Pure Error 0.53
Cor Total 1054.89

that it would fit the data to the highest order polynomial. Table 3

Fig. 5. Vertical profile of temperature.
during the phase change period and therefore speed up the charg-
ing process. Although the higher fan speed can speed up melt-
ing process, the temperature difference between PCM and inlet air
seems to dominate.
3.3. RSM results
As discussed in the method section, the studied variables which
affected thermal comfort inside the test rooms were inlet air
speed, temperature, humidity, fan rotation speed, ceiling fan height
and PCM thickness. CCD was conducted to identify the simple and
combined effects of operating parameters on PPD. Three major
steps involved in this process: performing the statistically designed
experiments, estimating the coefficients in the proposed model
and predicting the response of process, and checking the validity
of the model. Different models were tested to find the best fit-
ting model. The mathematical modeling was developed in a way
shows the results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the models
which were fitted to responses. The significance of each model was
checked using p-value. It was observed that only Quadratic model
fitted models is significant in 95% confidence level (p value < 0.05).
The following response equations were used to correlate removal
efficiencies and independent variables n terms of coded factors re-
gardless of the significance of coefficients:
P P D = 9.68 + 3.45A + 1.15B − 0.96C − 1.57D − 2.32E
+ 0.56A2 + 1.57B2 + 0.80C 2 + 0.25D2 − 0.37E 2
+ 0.63AB + 0.15AC + 0.015AD − 0.48AE
+ 0.28BC − 0.0068BD − 0.028BE
+0.055CD − 0.03CE − 0.022DE (4)
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate the model
(Table 4). F-value is a useful tool to determine the statistical sig-
nificance of the regression model. It is measurement of variance of
data about the mean, based on the ratio of mean square of group
variance due to error. Good prediction of the experimental data can
be achieved when the tabulated F value becomes smaller than cal-
culated F-value. The “Model F-value” of 40.3 shows that the model
is highly significant. The associated p-value was employed to pre-
dict whether the F-statistics were large enough to indicate statis-
tical significance. p-values less than 0.05 indicate significance. P
value was obtained < 0.0 0 01 which implies there is only a 0.001%
chance that a “Model F-Value” with this magnitude could occur
due to noise and the model is strongly significant over the 95%
confidence interval. The Lack of Fit F-value of 0.51 implies the Lack
 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313
Fig. 6. PCM temperature variation at different fan speed.
Table 5
Model summary statistic.
Std. dev. 1.12E+00 R-Squared 0.9653
Mean 11.93 Adj R-Squared 0.9413
C.V.% 9.42 Pred R-Squared 0.9319
PRESS 1.46E+02 Adeq Precision 26.173
of Fit is significant. There is only a 68% chance that a Lack of Fit
F-value this large could occur due to noise. The non-significance of
lack-of-fit is favorable and it specifies the high predictability of the
model.
Model summary statistic is listed in Table 5. The coefficient of
determination (R2 ) of the model for response was noted as 0.96
suggested that the fitted polynomial equations had a significant
degree of fit of the model and only about 4% of the total variation
cannot be explained by the fitted model. The pred R-squared of
0.91 was in reasonable agreement with the “adj Rsquared” of 0.94
because the difference between these values is within 0.01 which
confirmed good predictability of the model. Moreover, the standard
deviation for the model was 1.12 and it has been confirmed that
smaller the value of standard deviation the better is the model
because the predicted value obtained will be found closer to the
actual value for the response. Adequate precision is a measure of
the signal to noise ratio and a value greater than or equal to 4
is always desirable. In the present analysis, a value of 26.1 indi-
cated sufficient model discrimination. On the other hand, a rela-
tively lower value of the coefficient of variation (CV = 9.42%) in-
dicated dependability and reproducibility of the model. Predicted
versus actual plot of the response was presented in Fig. 8. The val-
ues predicted by the model (from Eq. (4)) and the results obtained
303
by the experiments are distributed uniformly around a 45° line.
Normal Probability Plots for is shown in Fig. 9. The normal proba-
bility plot is a graphical technique for assessing whether or not a
data set is approximately normally distributed. The data are plot-
ted against a theoretical normal distribution in such a way that the
points should form an approximate straight line. Departures from
this straight line indicate departures from normality. The points on
plots form a nearly linear pattern, which indicates that the normal
distribution is a good model for this data set.
The significance of the parameter coefficients and the associ-
ated standard error of each term in Eq. (4) are presented in Table 4.
According to p-values (<0.05 is significant) A,B, C,D, E, AB, AC, AE,
A2 , B2 , C2 , are the significant model terms. It is remarkable that,
although BC,CE and E2 terms have a p-value slightly greater than
0.05, they are kept in the relevant correlations. The ANOVA results
reveal that the significance of PPD parameters is (the most to the
least significant): inlet air temperature > PCM thickness> inlet air
humidity>fan rotating speed> fan distance from ceiling. The high-
est F-value (475.13) and the lowest p-value (<0.0 0 01) is assigned
to the inlet air temperature among other variables. This result in-
dicates the inlet air temperature is the most important variable in
PPD evaluation under the current circumstances. Among the in-
teractions, the simultaneous influence of the inlet air temperature
and humidity has the highest significance (F-value (12.7), p value
(0.0036)).
Perturbation plots are illustrated in Fig. 10 for both responses.
This figure shows how the responses change as each factor moves
from the chosen reference point, with all other factors held con-
stant at the reference value. The reference value is the coded
zero level of each factor. As it mentioned before and Fig. 10 ap-
proves that, factor D produces a relatively small effect on PPD as it
304 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313
Fig. 7. PCM temperature variation at different inlet air temperature.
changes from the reference point. It also shows the direct nonlin-
ear dependence of PPD on A,B and C.
3.3.1. The effects of the parameters on PPD
In order to reach a complete understanding of the thermal com-
fort inside the room, along with the two-dimensional contours,
three-dimensional response surface plots are essential. These plots
presents two factors influence on response while other factors are
kept constant at the central point. Figs. 11–17 show the simultane-
ous influence of considered parameters on PPD. The significance of
the investigated interactions can be found by the elliptical shape
of the contour plots. When the contour lines become parallel with
either of the axes, it can be concluded that no interaction would
exist between the two variables.
The simultaneous influence of inlet air temperature and humid-
ity on PPD was illustrated in Fig. 11. based on the figure at a con-
stant air humidity, increasing air temperature increases PPD. The
parameters for air temperature include the mean interior temper-
ature and the criteria for horizontal and vertical temperature dis-
tribution in order to reduce area s of local thermal discomfort to
minimum. The air temperature inside the room is in nearly homo-
geneous due to the installed ceiling fan. Higher inside air temper-
ature implies higher cooling loads which results in melting PCM
faster (Fig. 12). Although this will temporarily reduce the discom-
fort level, it will not allow to the use of phase change material
for a longer time period. Consequently, despite the improvement
of the PPD for a short time, the overall PDD for the considered pe-
riod will increase. Based on the results, better comfort level can be
assessed at higher temperature providing that PCM section be con-
sidered inside the room. It must be noted that keeping air veloc-
ity in a constant value while increasing air temperature is another
reason for higher discomfort level.
Humidity has a minor role to play in PPD variation, except for
certain extreme conditions [32]. With lower inlet air temperature,
thermal perception and skin temperature and wettedness are gen-
erally not affected much by humidity. However, indoor environ-
ments with humidity higher than 70%, preventing the evaporation
of sweat from the skin, make it very difficult to cool down. At op-
erative temperatures beyond the upper comfort limit of tempera-
ture, higher humidity prevents the evaporation of sweat from the
skin, which is the main way to cool down. This results in increas-
ing discomfort level. Therefore, higher inlet temperature needs to
keep down humidity level.
Fig. 13 show the interaction between inlet air temperature and
fan rotation speed. At a higher inlet air temperature, fan speed
slightly increased thermal comfort; however, it has a more pro-
nounced effect at lower levels for inlet air temperature. The faster
the air movement, the greater the exchange of heat between the
person and air. As an illustration, greater air velocity can compen-
sate for rise in temperature, improve air quality perception [43]
and ensure performance level in warmer environment. Moving air
in warm or humid conditions can increase heat loss through con-
vection without any change in air temperature. As said before, in-
creasing inlet air temperature rises temperature gradient vertically
M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313 305

Fig. 8. Predicted versus actual plot of PPD.

Fig. 9. Normal probability plot of residuals.

306 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313

Fig. 10. The perturbation plot for the PPD.

Fig. 11. Effect of inlet air temperature and humidity on PPD; 3D surface graph.
 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313 307

Fig. 12. Effect of inlet air temperature and PCM thickness on PPD; 3D surface graph.

Fig. 13. Effect of inlet air temperature and fan rotation speed on PPD; 3D surface graph.
308 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313
Fig. 14. Effect of inlet air temperature and fan height on PPD; 3D surface graph.
inside the room. This will reduce cooling effect of higher speeds.
Higher fan speed will pull warm air around the fan motor and un-
der the ceiling down. Ceiling fans, in contrast to air conditioners,
do not lower air temperature or air humidity in rooms. Ceiling fans
cool the bodies, but they do this only by increasing the air move-
ment or airflow in the room. With increased air movement, the
body sweat evaporates easier. And as sweat evaporates, it takes
away some of body heat; thus, cooling persons.
Fig. 14 show the interaction between inlet air temperature and
fan distance with ceiling surface. As can be seen, discomfort level
decrease with increasing ceiling fan distance. As said before, the
maximum value of air velocity becomes closer to the center of the
ceiling fan and the maximum value is smaller when the ceiling fan
is closer to the ceiling surface. Increasing air velocity will improve
thermal comfort by creating a wind-chill effect. However beyond a
value, increasing the distance creates inappropriate conditions for
thermal discomfort at higher temperature. Higher distance can re-
sult in poor airflow in the room and increase discomfort level. For
lower temperatures, the distance does not show a significant effect
on PPD.
Fig. 15 show the simultaneous influence of fan rotation speed
and humidity. Based on the figure, when the relative humidity is
above 80%, high airflow velocities would again work against ther-
mal comfort. In hot and humid environments where the relative
humidity varies from 50% to 100%, increasing the airflow velocity
will accelerate the evaporation of sweat by moving the saturated
air away from the skin and replacing it with unsaturated air. Fur-
thermore, at a relative humidity of 20% (dry conditions), the air-
flow velocity will accelerate moisture removal at the skin surface
increasing cooling due to evaporative processes. Above 80% relative
humidity (humid conditions) there is very little evaporative poten-
tial as the ambient air is already close to saturation, making air
movement relatively ineffective.
The interaction of fan speed and PCM thickness was presented
in Fig. 16. Higher air velocity will increase heat transfer rate into
the PCM section and decrease room air temperature sharply. As a
result, higher air velocity together with lower air temperature will
not improve thermal comfort. On the contrary, lower fan speed
makes PCM melt slowly and the required temperature gradients
was not provided to create favorable conditions. Larger PCM thick-
ness will results in better thermal comfort for time period. The
presence of phase change material results in thermal comfort as-
sessment at lower fan rotating speed compared to the cases with-
out PCM.
Finally, the interaction between PCM thickness and inlet air hu-
midity was presented in Fig. 17. Based on the figure, the presence
of PCM reduces for higher humidity discomfort compared to the
case without storage unit.
3.3.2. Optimization and validation
To determine the optimum conditions for the proposed systems,
the optimization tool of DesignExpert® 7.0.0 was utilized. The pro-
gram strategy was to optimize the response via the maximization
of an objective function named the desirability function ranging
from zero to one. When desirability functions became one, the pro-
gram searched for the conditions in which desirability reached a
maximum level. To achieve the optimum conditions, all the fac-
tors were selected based on Tabriz weather condition while PPD
was defined as minimum. However, a comprehensive optimization
is the one that accounts the economic aspects of a process along
 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313 309

Fig. 15. Effect of inlet air humidity and fan rotation speed on PPD; 3D surface graph.

Table 6 days period from 1/06/2017 to 5/06/2017 was used to perform the
The optimum predicted results based on
tests. Temperature variation inside the rooms was recorded and
RSM-CCD.
compared.
Parameter Value The recorded temperature were presented in Fig. 18. for rooms
A: Inlet air temp. C 29 A and B. During day time, the temperature in room A (without
B: Inlet air humidity % 48 PCM) is higher than Room B. On the contrary, Room B possess
C: Fan rotating speed rpm 115 higher temperature during nighttime. Moreover, Room B temper-
D: Fan height cm 31
ature peak time lag behind those of the Room A. Comparison of
E: PCM thickness cm 2.6
PPD % 4.1 peak temperatures between Room A and Room B was presented in
Table 7. Based on the table, Room A peak temperature is higher
of 2.5 °C than in the Rom B; while, the minimum temperature of
with maximizing its efficiency. Accordingly, the optimum process Room B is higher 2.3 °C than that of the Room A. This can be ex-
variables and the related response are presented in Table 6. In or- plained by discharging PCM heat into the room during nighttime.
der to check the accuracy of the optimization, the model was val- An interesting point is that the indoor temperature fluctuation is
idated by performing thermal experiments in test room B under smaller when PCM was employed which shows its advantage for
the optimum condition. The minimized PPD was. These indicated smoothing temperature difference of day and night.
that RSM was an effective approach for obtaining desired operating The tests were continued for two months. The results presented
conditions in proposed system during discharging process. in Fig. 19. Obviously, Room B has a lower indoor temperature than
Room A without PCM unit. In summer period, the Room A average
3.4. Thermal comfort assessment in real condition temperature during the day is 6.3 °C higher than that of Room B.
This is due to the PCM storage ability which prevent temperature
To test the effectiveness of PCM incorporation into the ceiling increment by absorbing heat from the room. Mostly, higher tem-
fan, series of tests was performed for more realistic conditions, i.e. perature for Room B happened outside the operation time (night-
air was taken from the outside of a laboratory building and daily time). This is a proof for significant potential of building energy
variations of air temperature were closer to ambient air tempera- efficiency. The completely or significant portion of required energy
ture variations. In this step, the room without PCM unit was op- for space cooling can be shifted to off-peak period to cool the in-
timized separately using RSM results. PLC program was used to terior of the room which would bring significant economic bene-
change fan rotating direction during day and night periods. A 5 fits on both energy demand and supply. This shifting technique is
310 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313

Fig. 16. Effect of PCM thickness and fan rotation speed on PPD; 3D surface graph.

Table 7
Comparison of peak temperatures between the PCM room B and reference room A.

Time (Day) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

Room Maximum temperature 30.83 35.46 31.69 34.36 26.13

A Minimum temperature 16.52 17.85 18.84 18.49 21.04
Room Maximum temperature 28.8 32.04 29.38 31.52 24.11
B Minimum temperature 19.65 20.11 20.52 20.33 21.77

achieved through the storing off-peak periods energy and utilizing
it during peak period.
To test the applicability of proposed system during the cold
days, both rooms were operated in Winter weather condition. The
recorded temperature for 5 days was presented in Fig. 20. For
rooms A and B. Room B possess lower temperature during the
day. Ceiling fan creates an updraft and will push air down with
lower temperature. At first glance, one may conclude that discom-
fort level will be increase in this situation. Taking a deeper look
into the process shows that PCM only uses extra heat load which
employed to make the room warmer. During the night, ceiling fan
sucks cool air up and rises its temperature through PCM solidify-
ing. Based on the figure, the peak temperature in Room B is lower
of 1.9 °C than that in the Room A. Contrary to the above results,
the minimum temperature of PCM room is higher 0.9 °C than that
of the room without PCM.
The tests were continued for two months. The results presented
in Fig. 21. Based on the figure, Room B temperature was apparently
higher than Room A during nighttime. Based on the results, Room
B can bring larger temperature drop during winter day and larger
temperature rise during winter night.
Standard EN 15251was used to investigate the indoor comfort
assessment for summer period. Based on the figure, periods of
overheating exists for both rooms. This was concluded from exten-
sive period above the upper limit for the indoor air temperature
(Fig. 22). In terms of overheating, it is possible to observe the pe-
riod of overheating of 24.37% for the Room A and 10.54% for the
Room B. For the corresponding period evaluated in the room with
PCM, discomfort rate was reduced 13.83% for the cooling season.
This results indicates a PCM efficiency of 56%.
Indoor air temperature was represented for the heating period
in Fig. 23 From the figure, it can be concluded that overheating
exists for both the rooms. For room A, a large cloud of points for
indoor air temperatures monitored which found below the lower
limit defined by the standard. This means that higher discomfort
rate during the heating season was occurred. Comparing Room A
and Room B discomfort level shows a reduction of discomfort for
the heating season of 2.61%. This reduction shows PCM efficiency
of 35.49% (relative percentage), between results of discomfort time
of the room with and without PCM.
Analyzing discomfort time for heating and cooling season
proved that PCM provides a potential thermal regulation effect
 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313 311

Fig. 17. Effect of inlet air humidity and PCM thickness on PPD; 3D surface graph.

Fig. 18. Comparison of indoor temperature for Room A(without PCM) and Room
B(with PCM).
by reducing the discomfort level. This was concluded by reducing
temperature swing.
4. Conclusion
The paper presents results of the experimental tests of ther-
mal performance characteristics of special ceiling fan, which aims
to improve the free cooling in the building. The experiments were
Fig. 19. Comparison of indoor temperature in two month for Room A(without PCM)
and Room B(with PCM).
performed in both laboratory and real weather condition. Air ve-
locity profile was investigated at different fan distance from the
ceiling surface. The results showed that increasing distance will in-
crease air velocity in vertical direction. It was confirmed that the
ceiling fan is beneficial to moderate the vertical temperature dif-
ference, and the higher rotational speed, the more beneficial to
312 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313
Fig. 20. Comparison of indoor temperature for Room A(without PCM) and Room
B(with PCM) (winter case).
Fig. 21. Comparison of indoor temperature in two month for Room A(without PCM)
and Room B(with PCM) (winter case).
Fig. 22. Indoor air temperature for the cooling season.
improve the vertical temperature stratification. In order to inves-
tigate PCM unit performance together with ceiling fan, as a new
free cooling system, two tests room were built. The only differ-
ence between the rooms was PCM unit. RSM design of experi-
ment method was employed to evaluate individual/interactive in-
fluences of parameters (including inlet air temperature and humid-
Fig. 23. Indoor air temperature for the heating season.
ity, fan rotating speed, fan distance from ceiling surface and PCM
slab thickness) on thermal comfort inside the rooms. RSM with
an 50-run CCD design was performed and second-order regres-
sion models were generated. ANOVA was conducted to validate the
significant consistency between experimental values and predicted
ones. The fundamental objective of this work was to determine the
most important parameter of the mentioned process. The ANOVA
results enunciated that the significance of the parameters is as fol-
lows (the most to the least significant): inlet air temperature >
PCM thickness> inlet air humidity>fan rotating speed> fan dis-
tance from ceiling. The 3D surface graphs were generated to inves-
tigate parameters effect on PPD. The results proved that including
PCM unit together with ceiling fan decrease temperature negative
effect on PPD. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed a satisfactory
agreement of the predicted and experimental data. High values of
the determined R2 coefficients of the model (>0.99) confirm that
the proposed equation fits the experimental data accurately. The
obtain desired operating conditions to minimize PPD were inlet air
temperature of 29, humidity of 48%, fan rotating speed of 115 rpm,
fan height of 31 cm and PCM thickness of 2.6 cm. PPD was obtained
4.1% in optimized condition. The second series of tests was per-
formed for more realistic conditions. Tests rooms were adjusted to
optimized conditions. This study was focused on the summer and
Winter season of the Tabriz area. The room with PCM was cooler
than the room without PCM, and the peak temperature was also
delayed by PCM. The peak time shifting and peak temperature re-
ducing indicated the application of PCM used in building can ben-
efit the indoor thermal comfort and building energy efficiency. For
summer case, Room A(without PCM) peak temperature is higher
of 2.5 °C than in the Rom B (with PCM); while, the minimum tem-
perature of Room B is higher 2.3 °C than that of the Room A. Com-
paring Room A and Room B discomfort level shows a reduction of
discomfort for the heating season of 2.61%. This reduction shows
PCM efficiency of 35.49% (relative percentage), between results of
discomfort time of the room with and without PCM.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the research depart-
ment of Tarbiat Modares University (research group of Phase
Change Materials, Grant No. IG-39710) for their financial support
during the research.
Supplementary material
Supplementary material associated with this article can be
found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.02.020.
 M. Alizadeh and S.M. Sadrameli / Energy & Buildings 188–189 (2019) 297–313
References
[1] M. Alizadeh, S.M. Sadrameli, Development of free cooling based ventilation
technology for buildings: thermal energy storage (TES) unit, performance en-
hancement techniques and design considerations – a review, Renew. Sustain.
Energy Rev. 58 (2016) 619–645.
[2] R. Zeinelabdein, S. Omer, G. Gan, Critical review of latent heat storage systems
for free cooling in buildings, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 82 (2018) 2843–2868.
[3] M. Saffari, et al., Passive cooling of buildings with phase change materials us-
ing whole-building energy simulation tools: a review, Renew. Sustain. Energy
Rev. 80 (2017) 1239–1255.
[4] H. Akeiber, et al., A review on phase change material (PCM) for sustainable
passive cooling in building envelopes, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 60 (2016)
1470–1497.
[5] F. Souayfane, F. Fardoun, P.H. Biwole, Phase change materials (PCM) for cooling
applications in buildings: a review, Energy Build. 129 (2016) 396–431.
[6] M. Alam, et al., A comparative study on the effectiveness of passive and free
cooling application methods of phase change materials for energy efficient
retrofitting in residential buildings, Procedia Eng. 180 (2017) 993–1002.
[7] N.B Geetha, R. Velraj, Passive cooling methods for energy efficient buildings
with and without thermal energy storage – a review, Energy Educ. Sci. Technol.
Part A 29 (2) (2012) 913–946.
[8] E. Osterman, V. Butala, U. Stritih, PCM thermal storage system for ’free’ heating
and cooling of buildings, Energy Build. 106 (2015) 125–133.
[9] M. Thambidurai, et al., Review on phase change material based free cooling of
buildings-the way toward sustainability, J. Energy Storage 4 (2015) 74–88.
[10] S. Kamali, Review of free cooling system using phase change material for
building, Energy Build. 80 (2014) 131–136.
[11] A. Waqas, Z. Ud Din, Phase change material (PCM) storage for free cooling of
buildings – a review, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 18 (2013) 607–625.
[12] A. Brun, et al., Summer comfort in a low-inertia building with a new free-cool-
ing system, Appl. Energy 112 (2013) 338–349.
[13] M. Iten, S. Liu, A. Shukla, A review on the air-PCM-TES application for free
cooling and heating in the buildings, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 61 (2016)
175–186.
[14] V.A.A Raj, R. Velraj, Review on free cooling of buildings using phase change
materials, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 14 (9) (2010) 2819–2829.
[15] C. Inard, J. Pfafferott, C. Ghiaus, Free-running temperature and potential
for free cooling by ventilation: a case study, Energy Build. 43 (10) (2011)
2705–2711.
[16] G. Zhou, Y. Yang, H. Xu, Energy performance of a hybrid space-cooling system
in an office building using SSPCM thermal storage and night ventilation, Sol.
Energy 85 (3) (2011) 477–485.
[17] A. Waqas, M. Ali, Z. Ud Din, Performance analysis of phase-change material
storage unit for both heating and cooling of buildings, Int. J. Sustain. Energy
36 (2015) 1–19.
[18] A. Waqas, S. Kumar, Thermal performance of latent heat storage for free cool-
ing of buildings in a dry and hot climate: an experimental study, Energy Build.
43 (10) (2011) 2621–2630.
[19] A. Waqas, S. Kumar, Utilization of latent heat storage unit for comfort venti-
lation of buildings in hot and dry climates, Int. J. Green Energy 8 (1) (2011)
1–24.
[20] A.A.R. Darzi, et al., Numerical investigation of free-cooling system using plate
type PCM storage, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transf. 48 (2013) 155–163.
313
[21] M. Thambidurai, et al., Experimental investigation of free cooling using phase
change material-filled air heat exchanger for energy efficiency in buildings,
Adv. Build Energy Res. 12 (2016) 1–11.
[22] M. Rajagopal, et al., Investigation on phase change material-based flat plate
heat exchanger modules for free cooling applications in energy-efficient build-
ings, Adv. Build Energy Res. 11 (2016) 1–23.
[23] M. Rajagopal, et al., Free cooling potential and technology options for thermal
energy management of a commercial building in Bangalore City, India, Energy
Eng. 111 (2) (2014) 11–24.
[24] E. Osterman, et al., Parametrical analysis of latent heat and cold storage for
heating and cooling of rooms, Appl. Therm. Eng. 84 (2015) 138–149.
[25] M. Alizadeh, S.M. Sadrameli, Numerical modeling and optimization of ther-
mal comfort in building: central composite design and CFD simulation, Energy
Build. 164 (2018) 187–202.
[26] S. Zhang, et al., Optimization of room air temperature in stratum-ventilated
rooms for both thermal comfort and energy saving, Appl. Energy 204 (2017)
420–431.
[27] H. Djamila, Indoor thermal comfort predictions: selected issues and trends, Re-
new. Sustain. Energy Rev. 74 (2017) 569–580.
[28] W. Chen, et al., Experimental and numerical investigations of indoor air move-
ment distribution with an office ceiling fan, Build. Environ. 130 (2018) 14–26.
[29] Y. Zhai, et al., Human comfort and perceived air quality in warm and humid
environments with ceiling fans, Build. Environ. 90 (2015) 178–185.
[30] M.A. Afaq, et al., Study on the design improvement of an indoor ceiling fan,
in: Proceedings of 2014 11th International Bhurban Conference on Applied Sci-
ences and Technology, IBCAST 2014, 2014.
[31] R. Bassiouny, N.S. Korah, Studying the features of air flow induced by a room
ceiling-fan, Energy Build. 43 (8) (2011) 1913–1918.
[32] Parker, D.S., T. Zambrano, and T. Kiceniuk, High efficiency twisted leaf blade
ceiling fan. 2008.
[33] M. Koschenz, B. Lehmann, Development of a thermally activated ceiling panel
with PCM for application in lightweight and retrofitted buildings, Energy Build.
36 (6) (2004) 567–578.
[34] A. Jain, et al., Experimental investigation of the flow field of a ceiling FAN, in:
Proceedings of the ASME Heat Transfer/Fluids Engineering Summer Conference
2004, HT/FED 2004, 2004.
[35] Volk, S.J., Propeller breeze enhancing blades for conventional ceiling fans. 1990.
[36] S.C Lin, M.Y. Hsieh, An integrated numerical and experimental analysis for
enhancing the performance of the hidden ceiling fan, Adv. Mech. Eng. 2014
(2014) 214967.
[37] J. Sonne, D. Parker, Measured ceiling fan performance and usage patterns: im-
plications for efficiency and comfort improvement, ACEEE Summer Study En-
ergy Effic. Build. 1 (1998) 335–341.
[38] R. Aynsley, Fan size and energy efficiency, Int. J. Vent. 1 (1) (2002) 33–38.
[39] E. Adeeb, et al., Shape optimization of non-linear swept ceiling fan blades
through RANS simulations and response surface methods, in: Proceedings of
2015 12th International Bhurban Conference on Applied Sciences and Technol-
ogy, IBCAST 2015, 2015.
[40] F. Babich, et al., Transient three-dimensional CFD modelling of ceiling fans,
Build. Environ. 123 (2017) 37–49.
[41] Y. Gao, et al., Ceiling fan air speeds around desks and office partitions, Build.
Environ. 124 (2017) 412–440.