Coupling a Thermal Comfort Model with Building Simulation for User Comfort and Energy Efficiency

This paper describes a methodology for coupling an

advanced model of the thermo-regulatory system of

the human body that describes its physiological

processes, a comfort model that evaluates thermal

sensation and comfort, and the ESP-r building

simulation software that computes the transient

thermal response of a building model.

The objective of this study was to utilise the

physiology and comfort models to dynamically

modify the heating and cooling temperature set points

of a zone controller in ESP-r, in accordance with the

computed human thermal sensation and achieve realtime

thermal comfort management.

The comunication between the software is managed

by the ESP-r controller, which at each simulation time

step prints the building states on text files. The

building states are then used by the physiology and

comfort models to compute the perceived sensation

and comfort metrics. These metrics are utilised by a

logic in the controller of the indoor conditions to

calculate the temperature set point corrections for the

next time step. Simulation results were generated for

a single zone model, using UK climate, over five

winter and five summer days. Both winter and summer

tests showed the expected behaviour in set point

modification. The integration of the comfort model

during the simulation of the case study building shows

promising results in adjusting the set point by

maintaining a relatively wide temperature range that

ensures the building does not utilise excessive energy

to maintain a narrow comfort band and at the same

time that local thermal comfort requirements are

satisfied.