Thermal comfort perception and indoor climate

Abstract

The average energy consumption for heating of dwellings in the
Netherlands has been decreasing over the last decades as a result of
increasing thermal performance of new and renovated dwellings. However,
this decrease is found to be lower than energy performance models
predicted. One of the possible reasons is the behaviour of the
residents, which is partially determined by the thermal comfort
preferences of these residents. In this paper, the relationship between
thermal comfort perception, indoor climate and energy consumption is
investigated using high-resolution measurement data in 93 dwellings in
the Netherlands. In the OPSCHALER project, data about thermal comfort
perception, indoor climate and operational energy consumption were
collected in 93 dwellings in the Netherlands during periods ranging from
two to twelve months over a period of two years. Comfort perception was
registered using the Comfort App, an application where users record
their comfort data. Indoor climate data were collected per five minutes
using sensors for temperature, relative humidity and CO2 concentration
in the living room, kitchen and bedrooms of the dwellings. The Comfort
App asked the residents for the room they are in, their comfort
perception, their activities during the last half hour and the amount of
clothing they wear. Significant relationships were found between
thermal sensation and thermal preference, clothing level, metabolic
activity level, activities related to thermal comfort taken in the last
half hour, and indoor air temperature. These data can be used to compare
the comfort level registered by the residents with the comfort level
predicted by the PMV model, and link this to the indoor climate and the
energy consumption for heating. This information can help to understand
the relations between user preferences, indoor climate and energy
consumption for heating.