EVALUATION OF THERMAL COMFORT IN A NON-UNIFORM THERMAL ENVIRONMENT : Effect of floor temperature on thermal comfort and prediction of thermal comfort on the basis of local thermal sensation

In evaluating a room environment, should be considered thermal comfort in addition to thermal sensation. In other words, different heating systems provide different levels of thermal comfort due to non-uniform temperature distribution. This study proposes a thermal comfort evaluation method for a room in which the temperature is not uniform. The experiments were conducted using test chambers set up in an environmental laboratory. More than seven hundred people participated to the experiments as subjects. From this experiment, determination of vertical airs temperature distribution such that the head was cold and feet were warm indicated high thermal comfort. Using this consequence, it was possible to estimate thermal comfort under a non-uniform environment by multiplying the heat load of human body parts.