Thermal comfort perception and indoor climate

Results from the OPSCHALER project

Abstract

The average energy consumption for heating of dwellings in the Netherlands has been decreasing over the last decades as a result of increasing thermal performance of new and renovated dwellings. However, this decrease is found to be lower than energy performance models predicted. One of the possible reasons is the behaviour of the residents, which is partially determined by the thermal comfort preferences of these residents. In this paper, the relationship between thermal comfort perception, indoor climate and energy consumption is investigated using high-resolution measurement data in 93 dwellings in the Netherlands. In the OPSCHALER project, data about thermal comfort perception, indoor climate and operational energy consumption were collected in 93 dwellings in the Netherlands during periods ranging from two to twelve months over a period of two years. Comfort perception was registered using the Comfort App, an application where users record their comfort data. Indoor climate data were collected per five minutes using sensors for temperature, relative humidity and CO2 concentration in the living room, kitchen and bedrooms of the dwellings. The Comfort App asked the residents for the room they are in, their comfort perception, their activities during the last half hour and the amount of clothing they wear. Significant relationships were found between thermal sensation and thermal preference, clothing level, metabolic activity level, activities related to thermal comfort taken in the last half hour, and indoor air temperature. These data can be used to compare the comfort level registered by the residents with the comfort level predicted by the PMV model, and link this to the indoor climate and the energy consumption for heating. This information can help to understand the relations between user preferences, indoor climate and energy consumption for heating.