Thermal comfort

Currently, we know that people spend around 90% of their time inside buildings living, working and even learning new things. In these buildings, the internal thermal environment is a factor that, in addition to impacting energy consumption, plays a fundamental role in the way we live and absorb such experiences. In other words, in addition to the energy issue, there may be implications for our productivity, physical and emotional well-being, in addition to health. Given the importance of the thermal conditions of a building, it is necessary to consider them when designing or “retrofitting” buildings occupied by men, making them more comfortable and efficient.

Thus, we can state that thermal comfort is the global condition of a person in which they prefer to feel neither hotter nor colder; in other words, it is a total state of physical and mental well-being that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment around you. This state can be associated with each person's individuality, which means that a mild environment can be considered comfortable for some, and uncomfortable for others. In practice, different views of thermal comfort can result in different conjunctions of technology and behavior. The parameters that influence the thermal condition include environmental (climatic) and individual (subjective) parameters. Environmental variables include air temperature, relative humidity, air speed and radiant temperature of an environment; The individual ones are related to metabolic activity, clothing and physical particularities of a person.

LabEEE has been carrying out research in the area of ​​thermal comfort since 1999, the year in which the first master's thesis on the topic was defended. Since then, more than 60 scientific works have been published, including articles from national and international journals, congresses, theses, dissertations and technical reports. The focus of these works has been data collection through field studies in commercial, educational and residential buildings.

Researchers involved in this area:

Ongoing research

Completed researches

Publicações em periódicos relacionadas à linha de pesquisa

Ano Título Periódico Autores
Thermal preference and comfort assessment in air-conditioned and naturally-ventilated university classrooms under hot and humid conditions in Brazil Energy and Buildings Carolina Buonocore, Renata De Vecchi, Veridiana Scalco, Roberto Lamberts
The Scales Project, a cross-national dataset on the interpretation of thermal perception scales Nature: Scientific Data Marcel Schweiker, Maíra André, Carolina Buonocore, Greici Ramos, Roberto Lamberts, Renata De Vecchi […] Zahra Sadat Zomorodian
Thermal sensitivity of occupants in different building typologies: the Griffiths Constant is a Variable Energy and Buildings Rupp, R. F.; Kim, J.; Ghisi, E.; de Dear, R.
Influence of recent and long-term exposure to air-conditioned environments on thermal perception in naturally-ventilated classrooms Building and Environment Buonocore, C.; De Vecchi, R.; Scalco, V.; Lamberts, R.
A field study about gender and thermal comfort temperatures in office buildings Energy and Buildings Maykot, J. K.; Rupp, R. F.; Ghisi, E.