Influence of PV-powered thermoelectric surfaces for user-individual radiative cooling on the cooling energy demand of buildings

This paper discusses a newly developed personal cooling device called Thecla and its influence on a subject's thermal sensation and comfort as well as the energy demands of cooling buildings. Thecla is a thermoelectric cooling partition that provides a cooled surface using longwave radiation exchange to cool a user's skin and clothing. The impact of this device on the skin temperatures and the resulting impact on the personal thermal sensation and comfort is determined through a human subject study and numeric comfort and sensation model simulations. The cooling capability of Thecla is quantified by the term "corrective delta", which describes the highest possible temperature increase from a neutral thermal condition for which Thecla could still maintain thermal comfort. The amount of cooling energy saved because of admissible higher set temperatures is assessed. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.