The Effect of the Heating System on the Occupant’s Thermal Comfort and Optimum Room Air Temperature

Experiments were repetitively held in the laboratory of a research centre on a group of twenty-four participants for four different heating systems. All were of same age and wore similar clothing. Half were male and half female. During these 288 experiments objective indoor environment parameters (air temperature, globe temperature, relative humidity and air velocity) were measured, as well as subjective parameters (body surface temperatures) during low-intensity physical activity. Participant´s satisfaction with the thermal comfort was observed. They evaluated their perceptions on questionnaires. The thermal comfort of participants and influence of the type of heating system was evaluated based on these answers. On the basis of these subjective perceptions, acceptable air temperatures for control of various heating systems were evaluated.