Human-Body Exergy Consumption Varying With the Combination of Room Air and Mean Radiant Temperatures

Connective thinking on building envelope – Human body exergy analysis

“…Vice versa, if virtual person (M = 1 met, I cl = 0.3 clo) is exposed to conditions in a room located at hot/humid climate (T ai = 26°C, Table 8 Human body exergy balances for a virtual person in a room without thermal insulation (Case t-a for temperate climate, Case c-a for cold climate, Case hd-a for hot/dry climate and hh-a for hot/humid climate) and a room with thermal insulation (Case t-b for temperate climate, Case c-b for cold climate, Case hd-b for hot/dry climate and hh-b for hot/humid climate Results of previous studies [3,14,17] proved that at thermally neutral conditions, lower hbExCr appeared. Simone et al [20] and Wu et al [30] concluded that minimum hBExCr occurs under thermal conditions in which human thermal sensation was close to ''slightly cool''.…”

“…The use of exergy concept in the built environment was first introduced in the field of solar-energy utilisation by Isao Oshida [11] and further in building heating systems by Masanori Shukuya [12] and thermal comfort by Abdelaziz Hammache [13]. The relationship between human body exergy consumption rate (hbExCr) and a combination of indoor air temperature and mean radiant temperature was studied by Isawa et al [14], Shukuya et al [6,15,16], Prek [17], Shukuya [3,18], Prek and Butala [19]. Simone et al [20] examined the relation between hbExCr and the human thermal sensation.…”

Human Body Exergy Balance: Numerical Analysis of an Indoor Thermal Environment of a Passive Wooden Room in Summer

“…A series of research projects on the relationship between the human body exergy balance and thermal comfort has revealed that the thermal environment with respect to the exergy consumption rate of the human body has a necessary minimum for thermal comfort [1]. Isawa et al [7,8] conducted studies that involved numerical analyses sensitive to the human body exergy balance and revealed a heating system in harmony with the temperature regulation system of the human body. In the human body "energy" concept, there are innumerable sets of room air temperatures and mean radiant temperatures that realize the [metabolic heat] = [outgoing heat] balance.…”

Unsteady-state human-body exergy consumption rate and its relation to subjective assessment of dynamic thermal environments

“…This difference can be explained again with the different assumption for outdoor conditions plus the data deriving from unsteady state conditions. With the respect to winter conditions, there are several studies that suggest that minimum human body exergy consumption rate is related to higher mean radiant temperature and lower air temperature [1,6,9]. For summer conditions, higher temperature first leads to a steep decrease in Ex following the increase in skin temperature.…”

“…A next step in application of exergy analysis is the investigation of human body exergy balance under unsteady-state conditions [5]. Most of human body exergy analyses, mostly focused mainly on human body exergy consumption rate, have been made with the assumption of steady-state conditions of thermal environment [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Human body exergy consumption rate determined for steady state thermal conditions will be further abbreviated Ex-st in the present paper.…”