Essay On Thermal Comfort

Name Matthew Scott Lau Index No. 20

Class 4.11 Stephen

1 Introduction

Global Warming is the average rise of temperature across the globe and it is increasing at an alarming rate due to harmful emissions to the atmosphere. One major contributor which holds a great Global Warming Potential (GWP) is the activity of refrigerants, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Refrigerants are used to artificially induce a low temperature in an enclosed area for the comfort of it’s user(s). The constant use of such refrigerants will eventually lead to an increase in average global temperature, encouraging further use for refrigerants - the source of the problem.

Singapore is located near the equator, experiencing high environmental temperature all year round. Therefore, thermal comfort indoors is an important factor to consider during construction. Almost every household in Singapore is equipped with air-conditioning or an equivalent device that uses harmful refrigerants to lower the average

It also aims to propose radical changes to current design of buildings and/or their cooling systems with the intention to further reduce or totally eliminate the need for air-conditioning.

2 Thermal Comfort

Thermal comfort is a state of mind where satisfaction with the thermal environment is expressed. There is, of course, an ‘optimum range’ at which thermal comfort can be experienced. It can be concluded that the temperature of a building is within this range when 80% of a building’s occupants, of a reasonably large sample size, express satisfaction with their thermal environment.

There are several factors affecting thermal comfort:

Air temperature

Indoor air temperatures of around 23°C to 26°C is generally comfortable for summer clothes.

Air velocity

Humidity

Radiant temperature

2.1 Cooling System