Thermal Management in Hospitals :Comfort, Air Quality, and Energy Utilization

The balance between thermal comfort and air quality in healthcare facilities to optimize the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is the main aim of this paper. The present paper will present this balance from the viewpoint of the air conditioning design. It was found that the design of the HVAC airside systems plays an important role for achieving the optimum air quality beside the optimum comfort level. This paper highlights the importance of the proper airside design on the IAQ. The present paper introduces some recommendations for airside designs to facilitate the development of optimum HVAC systems. This paper also stresses on the factors that improve the thermal comfort and air quality for the already existed systems (for maintenance procedure). To design an optimum HVAC airside system that provides comfort and air quality in the air-conditioned spaces with efficient energy consumption is a great challenge. The present paper defines the current status, future requirements, and expectations. Based on this analysis and the vast progress of computers and associated software, the artificial intelligent technique will be a competitor candidate to the experimental and numerical techniques. Finally, the researches that relate between the different designs of the HVAC systems and energy consumption should concern with the optimization of airside design as the expected target to enhance the indoor environment. The present paper reviews the results of recent investigations in the world that are concerned with the HVAC design engineering in the healthcare applications.