comfortA · A better understanding of thermal Alliesthesia and thermal Adaptation for correctly predicting dynamic thermal comfort

A better understanding of thermal Alliesthesia and thermal Adaptation for correctly predicting dynamic thermal comfort

As humans, we are frequently exposed to transient thermal conditions during our daily lives. These exposures can be the results of our actions such as changes in clothing, body posture, and activity. They can be also encountered in free-running buildings due to fluctuating temperatures and air velocities, or in any building when transitioning between different building thermal zones, or between a building and the outdoors. Lately, ways forward for actively implementing heating and cooling set-point temperature modulations are being explored to promote building energy savings and boost their energy flexibility as part of demand-management electricity programs. Despite transient thermal states being widespread in the built environment and in spite of their potential to create thermal delight and enhance building occupants’ well-being and health, a quantitative model to describe dynamic thermal sensation and comfort does not yet exist. Much of the effort in thermal comfort research has been dedicated to understanding which set of environmental and personal steady-state conditions leads to thermal comfort. As a consequence, the psycho-physiology of thermal perception under transient conditions remains relatively poorly understood and we are still far from being able to design and control dynamic modulations of indoor set-point temperatures that would be acceptable, let alone comfortable for occupants. The proposed research project aims to address this knowledge gap by shedding new light on the psycho-physiological mechanisms driving the dynamic thermal perception, with a particular focus on the phenomena of thermal alliesthesia and thermal adaptation, and by creating a more accurate physiological-based thermal comfort model, which can better account for these two phenomena. This project will provide the research community with a new robust set of empirical data, novel knowledge and a novel thermal comfort model, which has the potential to revolutionize the way professionals design and operate indoor comfort systems: not just aiming for thermal neutrality but striving for thermal delight.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union