Subjective assessment of thermal comfort by radiant cooling in a tropical hot humid climate

This paper investigated thermal comfort of radiant cooling with subjects who are accustomed to a trop-ical hot humid climate. Thermal sensation, thermal acceptability, and thermal preference were assessed from observations of a large group of the subjects in a radiant cooling experimental room refurbished as an office-like environment. The analysis results showed that the operative temperature for the thermal neutrality was about 25.0 degrees C, and the acceptable temperature ranged from 22.5 degrees C to 26.5 degrees C. Air move-ment played a key factor influencing on the subject preference in the radiant cooling, while the room rel-ative humidity had less significance. In this study, a field comfort survey of the conventional mixed-air system was also carried out in real occupied spaces by using the same questionnaire and measuring devices from the radiant comfort experiments. The comparison showed that the thermal responses of the subjects were different between the two air-conditioning systems. (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V.