Including the effect of solar radiation in dynamic indoor thermal comfort indices

The use of solar gains is one of the most effective passive strategies to reduce the heating energy demand of buildings. However, solar radiation not only affects the thermal balance of the building, but also that of the occupants. Several approaches have been developed for including solar effects into steady-state thermal comfort models (i.e. Fanger Model) proposing a correction to the calculation of the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and validating it experimentally. One of those approaches incorporates solar radiation as an adjustment of the mean radiant temperature (MRT) used in the calculation of the PMV. In this paper the described approach has been integrated in the calculation of three dynamic thermal comfort indices (i.e. TSENS, TSV and DTS). Results have been compared to the corresponding solar-adjusted PMV. The performance of the comfort models has been assessed on 12 different configurations of a shoebox open plan office, given by the combination of two window sizes and two window
orientations in three European locations. Results are presented in detailed spatial and temporal maps for a whole year. Two of the three compared dynamic indices (TSENS and TSV) have been found to perform similar to the solaradjusted PMV in detecting comfort issues.