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Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in the 2021 Built Environment

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2021) | Viewed by 16990

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Marco Filippi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino TO, Italy
Interests: energy and environmental sustainability in buildings; indoor environmental engineering; design and commissioning of building processes; energy management and monitoring of existing buildings
Dr. Maria Ferrara

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento Energia (DENERG), Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Interests: building modeling and simulation-based optimization; energy, cost, and comfort optimization of building design and operation; zero-energy buildings; building resilience to climate change; sustainable buildings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Controlling thermal comfort conditions and pollutant concentrations in the indoor environment remains a challenge for researchers, designers, and operations managers working in the field of the built environment. In fact, the required quality level of the built environment is always increasing and, from a sustainability perspective, it is imperative to identify solutions leading to maximized thermal comfort and indoor air quality while minimizing energy consumption and operating costs.

These issues are important to ensure the well-being and productivity of building occupants, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted how the quality of indoor spaces is crucial to ensuring occupant health.

From a research point of view, there is a great need for insights into the environmental quality as perceived by the occupants in relation to the measurable variables that characterize the indoor environment. Further, it is important to investigate new design and operation strategies to limit the potential spread of infectious particles in the indoor environment.

From a design point of view, it is necessary to provide calculation tools that allow predicting ambient conditions in relation to the rapid variation of heating and cooling loads as well as internal thermal loads and pollutants, and to select HVAC systems that are able to optimally manage these dynamics.

From a building operation point of view, accurate tools are necessary to monitor indoor environments and evaluate both objective and perceived quality. Further, building automation and control systems that are effective, user friendly, and tailored toward occupant satisfaction are required.

The aim of the present Special Issue of the section Energy is to bring together up-to-date research on the energy-related aspects of indoor environmental quality, considering the different challenges related to occupant health, such as:

  • Studies in thermal comfort and/or indoor air quality in buildings;
  • Modeling of the indoor environment;
  • Measurements and continuous monitoring of physical and biological indoor environmental parameters;
  • Assessment of the indoor environmental quality by occupant survey;
  • Innovative HVAC technologies for thermal comfort and indoor air quality control;
  • Air filtration and air purification techniques;
  • Building automation and control systems (BACS) and occupant behavior;
  • Thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and energy nexus;
  • Application of protocols to certify the indoor environmental quality;
  • Thermal comfort and indoor air quality in special environments (cleanrooms, transport cabinets, greenhouses, livestock houses, etc.).

Prof. Marco Filippi
Dr. Maria Ferrara
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • built environment
  • thermal comfort
  • indoor air quality
  • modeling
  • HVAC
  • energy
  • building automation systems
  • post-occupancy evaluation
  • monitoring
  • special environment
  • COVID-19

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 1558 KiB  
Article
Safety and Energy Implications of Setback Control in Operating Rooms during Unoccupied Periods
by Ana Tejero-González, Héctor López-Pérez, Fernando Espí-García, Luis M. Navas-Gracia and Julio F. SanJosé-Alonso
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(9), 4098; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12094098 - 19 Apr 2022
Viewed by 2451
Abstract
Health care facilities are high energy-demanding buildings. The energy-saving potential is limited due to safety regulations, especially in critical care areas like operating rooms (ORs). Reducing the supply airflows during unoccupied periods, also called ventilation turndown or setback, is accepted as an energy [...] Read more.
Health care facilities are high energy-demanding buildings. The energy-saving potential is limited due to safety regulations, especially in critical care areas like operating rooms (ORs). Reducing the supply airflows during unoccupied periods, also called ventilation turndown or setback, is accepted as an energy efficiency measure as long as it does not compromise the pressure relationship. In addition, temperature and relative humidity setbacks can introduce further energy savings. This work aims at studying the effect that a setback has on the OR-positive pressure and the savings achievable in both the energy supply and CO2 emissions. Towards this target, five tests are performed in two ORs of a public hospital during the summer, winter, and midseason. A setback is applied on the basis of an occupancy sensor, and the pressure difference from the OR adjacent spaces is monitored. The outdoor and supply air conditions and airflows, as well as fan energy consumption, are measured. Punctual pressure relationship losses are observed during the occupied periods due to doors opening but not during ventilation setback operations. The energy savings achieved accounted for 75% of the natural gas consumption and 69% of the electricity in the ORs. The yearly estimations imply economic savings of near 20,000 EUR and more than 100 tons of CO2 emissions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in the 2021 Built Environment)
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20 pages, 3017 KiB  
Article
Impacts on Indoor Thermal Comfort and Heating Energy Use in Hellenic Dwellings from Occupant Behavioral Reactions
by Elena G. Dascalaki and Constantinos A. Balaras
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(14), 6254; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11146254 - 6 Jul 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3018
Abstract
In an effort to reduce the operational cost of their dwellings, occupants may even have to sacrifice their indoor thermal comfort conditions. Following the economic recession in Greece over recent years, homeowners have been forced to adapt their practices by shortening heating hours, [...] Read more.
In an effort to reduce the operational cost of their dwellings, occupants may even have to sacrifice their indoor thermal comfort conditions. Following the economic recession in Greece over recent years, homeowners have been forced to adapt their practices by shortening heating hours, lowering the indoor thermostat settings, isolating spaces that are not heated or even turning off their central heating system and using alternative local heating systems. This paper presents the results from over 100 occupant surveys using questionnaires and walk-through energy audits in Hellenic households that documented how occupants operated the heating systems in their dwellings and the resulting indoor thermal comfort conditions and actual energy use. The results indicate that the perceived winter thermal comfort conditions were satisfactory in only half of the dwellings, since the actual operating space heating periods averaged only 5 h (compared with the assumed 18 h in standard conditions), while less than half heated their entire dwellings and only a fifth maintained an indoor setpoint temperature of 20 °C, corresponding to standard comfort conditions. Mainstream energy conservation measures include system maintenance, switching to more efficient systems, reducing heat losses and installing controls. This information is then used to derive empirical adaptation factors for bridging the gap between the calculated and actual energy use, making more realistic estimates of the expected energy savings following building renovations, setting prudent targets for energy efficiency and developing effective plans toward a decarbonized building stock. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in the 2021 Built Environment)
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12 pages, 5041 KiB  
Article
Thermophysiological Comfort of Surgeons and Patient in an Operating Room Based on PMV-PPD and PHS Indexes
by Radostina A. Angelova and Rositsa Velichkova
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(5), 1801; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10051801 - 5 Mar 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2787
Abstract
There are different actors in an operating room (OR), who have controversial requirements for the indoor thermal environment. While the patient is at risk of perioperative hypothermia, the surgeons are in a state of thermophysiological discomfort. The study presents an analysis of the [...] Read more.
There are different actors in an operating room (OR), who have controversial requirements for the indoor thermal environment. While the patient is at risk of perioperative hypothermia, the surgeons are in a state of thermophysiological discomfort. The study presents an analysis of the thermophysiological comfort of both patient and surgeons in an OR. Surgical clothing ensembles with three values of clothing insulation are simulated. Different indoor environment conditions (air temperature and relative humidity) are tested. The analysis is based on the calculation of predicted mean vote and predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PMV-PPD) indexes and assessment of the climatic conditions categories. Discussion of the predicted heat strain is also presented. The simulated results and their analysis show considerable discrepancies between the thermophysiological comfort of the patient and the surgeons, even when dressed in a light protective ensemble, in the same indoor environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in the 2021 Built Environment)
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Review

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18 pages, 1549 KiB  
Review
The Role of Climate Control in Monogastric Animal Farming: The Effects on Animal Welfare, Air Emissions, Productivity, Health, and Energy Use
by Andrea Costantino, Enrico Fabrizio and Salvador Calvet
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(20), 9549; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11209549 - 14 Oct 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2396
Abstract
In the last decades, an engineering process has deeply transformed livestock houses by introducing fine-tuned climate control systems to guarantee adequate indoor climate conditions needed to express the maximum genetic potential of animals and to increase their productivity. Climate control, hence, has strong [...] Read more.
In the last decades, an engineering process has deeply transformed livestock houses by introducing fine-tuned climate control systems to guarantee adequate indoor climate conditions needed to express the maximum genetic potential of animals and to increase their productivity. Climate control, hence, has strong relation with productivity but also with other livestock production domains, outlining a web of mutual relations between them. The objective of this work is to understand the actual role of climate control in intensive livestock houses by unpicking this web of mutual relations through a literature review. The results show that climate control plays a key role in intensive livestock houses since it has strong relations with animal welfare, air emissions, productivity, health, and energy use. These relations make it essential to adopt an integrated approach for the assessment of the effectiveness of any proposed improvement in the different domains of livestock production. This is especially true considering aspects such as the expected increase of livestock production in developing countries and global warming. For this purpose, integrated climate control models of livestock houses are needed, representing a challenging opportunity for performing investigations in this research field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in the 2021 Built Environment)
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22 pages, 1783 KiB  
Review
Thermal Comfort Applied in Hospital Environments: A Literature Review
by Pedro Filipe da Conceição Pereira, Evandro Eduardo Broday and Antonio Augusto de Paula Xavier
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(20), 7030; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10207030 - 10 Oct 2020
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 5192
Abstract
The predicted mean vote (PMV) is the most widely used model around the world to assess thermal comfort in indoor environments. The year 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the PMV model and also the year in which the World Health Organization (WHO) [...] Read more.
The predicted mean vote (PMV) is the most widely used model around the world to assess thermal comfort in indoor environments. The year 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the PMV model and also the year in which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. In this context, hospital environments and health professionals are at the center of attention, and a good indoor environment for those professionals to develop their activities is essential. Thus, considering the PMV model and focusing on hospital environments, this study performed a literature review of studies published between 1968 and August 2020. The research identified 153 papers on thermal comfort and its application in hospitals, health centers, and elderly centers. Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were adopted to determine the most relevant studies for the four research questions proposed in this study. After applying the exclusion criteria, 62 studies were included in order to identify their main characteristics. In the universe of the 62 studies, this review identified 24 studies that applied the PMV model and 12 where there was a comparison of PMV and the thermal sensation votes (TSV) reported by people. The main findings of this research are: (i) A good thermal environment for professionals and patients is important, and more studies are needed; (ii) there are little explored topics, such as productivity related to thermal comfort in hospital environments; (iii) in addition to thermal comfort, other indoor environmental quality (IEQ) parameters have also been evaluated, such as indoor air quality (IAQ); (iv): the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how the quality of indoor spaces is important in order to ensure occupant’s health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in the 2021 Built Environment)
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