Evaluation of the Indoor Thermal Comfort in Consideration of the Solar Radiation

Recently the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) has been used as an important index to evaluate the degree of the indoor thermal comfort in modern residential buildings. It is known that the PMV is mainly affected by four major factors, which are the air temperature, the air velocity, the humidity and the mean radiant temperature (MRT). Through the numerical calculation of the temperature and the modeling of the mean radiant temperature considering the solar radiation, we proposed the new modeling strategies of the mean radiant temperature and investigated the PMV index and evaluated the MRT. Also, we compared the numerical results with the experimental values. As the results, we found out that the MRT is affected by the wall temperature and the solar radiation. We also knew that the new modeling strategies of the mean radiant temperature is a more correct way of PMV calculation. Especially, the new modeling is necessary for the spaces like an atrium and large rooms with windows mainly influenced by solar radiation.