Personal conditioning systems (PCS) enable increased thermal comfort and acceptability conditions in a wider temperature range, resulting in energy savings. Many studies analysed the thermal effect and energy efficiency of these systems, although the association between these two goals in practice is not that simple. In order to identify possible answers to understand what remains to be discussed on this subject, a review of recent publications on PCS was carried out, mainly focused on its implementation in shared office spaces. The reviewed publications shed some light on the use of personal comfort models associated with environmental control for system automation, as well as the development of new technologies that facilitate data acquisition and the proposition of new personal conditioning systems. The application and proposition of wearable systems and the development of textiles for smart clothing is an identified trend seeking greater mobility and flexibility of PCS use, although its integration to environmental management systems is challenging. Thus, this review discloses some questions that should be considered for the implementation of PCS and personal comfort models in real environments, including some insights based on current publications on the subject.

The building sector is one of the largest consumers of natural resources and energy in the world. Strategies to improve the energy efficiency are a solution to improve the performance of a building. However, in most cases, such strategies are assessed only at the operational phase of a building. The life-cycle energy analysis can be an important tool to allow choosing the best strategy. The objective of this paper is to assess the energy performance of four window shading systems in a house using life-cycle energy analysis. Life-cycle cost analysis was also used to determine not only the most energy-efficient strategy, but also the most economically feasible one. A house located in Florianópolis, southern Brazil, was evaluated based on a 63-year lifespan. The four window shadings analysed were: punctured concrete blocks, aluminium double sliding shutters, PVC roller shutters and wooden double open shutters. The EnergyPlus computer programme was used to estimate only the annual energy consumption for air-conditioning with and without the shading strategies. National and international databases were used to perform the life-cycle analysis. For the life cycle cost analysis, the cost of each strategy was obtained through a survey in local stores. The average inflation rate in the last ten years in Brazil was used to estimate the future costs. The results showed that the use of wooden double open shutters and PVC roller shutters are the most suitable solutions for window shading, both in terms of energy and costs, if they are not replaced during the lifespan of the building. This paper pointed out the need of using the proposed methodology to assure the right choice of strategies for energy efficiency in buildings.

Energy consumption and thermal comfort in buildings are heavily affected by weather conditions. This study investigated the impact of climate change on thermal comfort conditions and on heating and cooling energy demand in dwellings in three cities in Brazil. Scenario A2 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was selected to be used in the study. To quantify the impact, the Climate Change World Weather File Generator was used to produce weather data for future typical meteorological years, such as 2020, 2050 and 2080. The EnergyPlus computer programme was used to estimate the indoor air temperature and the annual heating and cooling energy demand in the future. In order to maintain the energy consumption in the houses at the level it is nowadays, passive design strategies such as solar shading, low absorptance and thermal insulation were assessed. Results show that there will be an increase in the annual energy demand ranging from 19%–65% among the three cities in 2020; 56%–112% in 2050; and 112%–185% in 2080. In the coldest city, the annual heating energy demand will decrease by 94% in 2080 due to an increase in the average temperature and global solar radiation. The use of passive design strategies may reduce up to 50% the future annual cooling and heating energy demand in houses in Brazil.