THERMAL COMFORT IN REAL LIVE BUILDINGS: PROPOSAL FOR A NEW DUTCH GUIDELINE

摘要

In practice the commonly used criteria for thermal comfort in Dutch buildings (weighted factor method) often lead to confusion. The criteria are hard to understand for non-experts, and many doubt the validity of the present criteria. A project was initiated in order to formulate alternative ways to predict, evaluate and communicate thermal comfort performance of buildings. The result: a draft version for a new Dutch guideline for design and evaluation purposes. Properties of the new guideline are: 1. It distinguishes between requirements for centrally controlled and for occupant controlled indoor environments. 2. Limits are set in terms of maximum allowable operative indoor temperatures. These increase with increasing average outdoor temperature, anticipating on adaptation effects. 3. A building's performance is characterized by '% of working time that the allowable (floating) maximum indoor temperature is exceeded' and the 'average amount of degrees that the upper-limit is exceeded during those exceeding hours'.