An experimental study on indoor thermal comfort of the coupled radiation panels with household replacement fresh air system

Yangtze Region of China has high temperature in summer and low temperature in winter, with high humidity most of the year. The conventional household air conditioner cannot control temperature and humidity separately. Recently, the research on temperature and humidity independent control mainly focused on large-scale buildings; however, study on small-scale buildings throughout the year was limited. This paper introduces a novel household air-conditioning system suits for small-scale buildings in hot-humid climate region, named coupled radiation panels with household replacement fresh air (RP&HRFA) system, which could independently control the temperature and relative humidity of the indoor air. The RP&HRFA system can be operated in five different modes so as to be adaptive to different weather conditions all year round. In this paper, an experimental study under three operating modes, namely, summer, transitive season A, and winter B, were carried out. The overall and local thermal comfort indexes of the system were investigated under stable experiment operation conditions. The experimental results indicated that these indexes basically met the requirements of ISO7730 and ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55-2010. Practical application: This paper introduced a novel household air-conditioning system suits for small-scale buildings in hot-humid climate region, which could independently control the temperature and relative humidity of the indoor air. The experimental results under three operating modes indicated that the system could provide an acceptable indoor thermal comfort for occupants. Such a system could be applied to small-scale buildings in hot humid region for its good thermal comfort.

[1]  Kristian Fabbri,et al.  Thermal comfort evaluation in kindergarten: PMV and PPD measurement through datalogger and questionnaire , 2013 .

[2]  Shinsuke Kato,et al.  Study on indoor thermal environment of office space controlled by cooling panel system using field measurement and the numerical simulation , 2005 .

[3]  Yi Jiang,et al.  Simplified calculation for cooling/heating capacity, surface temperature distribution of radiant floor , 2012 .

[4]  Shiming Deng,et al.  Multivariable control of indoor air temperature and humidity in a direct expansion (DX) air conditioning (A/C) system , 2009 .

[5]  Carlo Roselli,et al.  Experimental analysis on the dehumidification and thermal performance of a desiccant wheel , 2012 .

[6]  Li Zheng,et al.  Indoor thermal comfort characteristics under the control of a direct expansion air conditioning unit having a variable-speed compressor and a supply air fan , 2009 .

[7]  Jian-Sheng Huang,et al.  Evaluation of cooling ceiling and mechanical ventilation systems on thermal comfort using CFD study in an office for subtropical region , 2012 .

[8]  Tao Zhang,et al.  Performance analysis of the air-conditioning system in Xi’an Xianyang International Airport , 2013 .

[9]  K. Cena,et al.  Thermal comfort and behavioural strategies in office buildings located in a hot-arid climate , 2001 .

[10]  A. Hwang.  [Thermal comfort]. , 1990, Taehan kanho. The Korean nurse.

[11]  Xu Zhang,et al.  Experimental study on a residential temperaturehumidity separate control air-conditioner , 2011 .

[12]  Kang Zhao,et al.  Performance of temperature and humidity independent control air-conditioning system in an office bui , 2011 .

[13]  Shiming Deng,et al.  Improved indoor thermal comfort during defrost with a novel reverse-cycle defrosting method for air source heat pumps , 2010 .

[14]  Dennis L. Loveday,et al.  Designing for thermal comfort in combined chilled ceiling/displacement ventilation environments , 1998 .

[15]  Pradeep Bansal,et al.  Performance analysis of liquid desiccant dehumidification systems , 2007 .

[16]  Li Sizhuo,et al.  A museum storeroom air-conditioning system employing the temperature and humidity independent control device in the cooling coil , 2011 .

[17]  Guoqiang Zhang,et al.  A combined system of chilled ceiling, displacement ventilation and desiccant dehumidification , 2007 .