Assessment of thermal comfort in workstations located near highly glazed façades

solar-adjustment models

Abstract

Although solar radiation exposure strongly impacts people's thermal comfort, workstations are frequently positioned close to glazed façades. Solar adjustment models have been developed to include the solar radiation impact on people's thermal comfort, which the Fanger and Adaptative models do not address. Nonetheless, those models present differences in their calculation procedures, which have not been thoroughly investigated. This study aims to verify differences in thermal comfort results by applying various solar adjustment models of thermal comfort indices for a person sitting close to a highly glazed façade in an office room. The analyses were based on indoor environment data from computer thermal simulations in EnergyPlus for a temperate climate in Brazil. The results for the same room demonstrated significant differences. For example, the hourly difference between the solar-adjustment models reached 1.7 in PMV, and the MRT was up to 17.6 ºC higher than the mean result calculated through EnergyPlus. The need for solar radiation incidence control is also reinforced. Although the results were not compared with measurement data or people's thermal perception, the limitations and advantages of each solar adjustment model were numerically analysed, broadening the discussions about the solar adjustment models and the consequences of the choices among them.