The potential of Personal Conditioning Systems

Ghent University, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, 9000 Gent, Belgium

^* Corresponding author: jelle.laverge@ugent.be

Abstract

Traditional HVAC systems provide a uniform indoor climate for the whole building or space, whereas the occupants each have their own comfort preferences. The result is suboptimal comfort for the occupants on the one hand, with at best up to 5 % of dissatisfied, and energy losses due to control on the safe side by the building operators. Personalised conditioning systems (PCS) do not aim to heat, cool or ventilate the space but to deliver the heat, cold and fresh air directly to the occupant. This paper provides a systematic assessment about the energy saving potential and potential comfort gains that can be achieved by implementing localized and personal HVAC systems in home environments. Using the Human Thermal Module software that allows to study the thermal sensation and thermoregulation under transient and asymmetric environmental conditions, the energy saving potential was evaluated in TRNSYS, and for a case study with different user behavior patterns it was shown that comfortable micro-climates can be achieved by means of heated chairs for an air temperature as low as 17°C, and the total annual energy savings amount to 30% in winter conditions and 70% in summer conditions.