Fig. 9. The effect of thermal sensation change with time on the dynamic term of thermal comfort.
space and time play the same important roles as overall thermal sensation. According to Figs. 3, 5 and 9, it can be found that the influencing weight of overall thermal sensation, thermal sensation change with space and thermal sensation change with time on overall thermal comfort is 0.8, 0.56 and 0.77 (for negative effect) or 0.64 (for positive effect) separately, which indicates that local environmental control or fluctuation of air temperature may have the same significant impact with whole space environmental control on occupants’ thermal perception of comfort by producing thermal sensation change with space or time. The relationship between thermal sensation and thermal comfort becomes more complicated and the known thermal sensation indices, such as PMV, ET* and SET are not suitable to assess thermally non-uniform or dynamic environments. Further systematical studies are needed to achieve the thermal comfort model integrated with the effect of thermal sensation change with space and time, which will be the basis for well design of non-uniform and non-steady environments for both comfort and energy conservation.
Zhang [18] carried out a systematical study on thermal sensation and comfort in transient non-uniform thermal environment and found that