ADAPTIVE THERMAL COMFORT Principles and Practice

ISBN: 9780415691598

42.00

The fundamental function of buildings is to provide safe and healthy shelter. For the fortunate they also provide comfort and delight. In the twentieth century comfort became a ‘product’ produced by machines and run on cheap energy. In a world where fossi

Weight 1 kg
Author

, ,

Book Language

Pages

196

Size

Year

2012

Cover

Paperback

Publishers

1 in stock

ISBN: 9780415691598 Categories: , ,
Description

Description

The fundamental function of buildings is to provide safe and healthy shelter. For the fortunate they also provide comfort and delight. In the twentieth century comfort became a ‘product’ produced by machines and run on cheap energy. In a world where fossil fuels are becoming ever scarcer and more expensive, and the climate more extreme, the challenge of designing comfortable buildings today requires a new approach.
This timely book is the first in a trilogy from leaders in the field which will provide just that. It explains, in a clear and comprehensible manner, how we stay comfortable by using our bodies, minds, buildings and their systems to adapt to indoor and outdoor conditions which change with the weather and the climate. The book is in two sections. The first introduces the principles on which the theory of adaptive thermal comfort is based. The second explains how to use field studies to measure thermal comfort in practice and to analyze the data gathered.
Architects have gradually passed responsibility for building performance to service engineers who are largely trained to see comfort as the ‘product’, designed using simplistic comfort models. The result has contributed to a shift to buildings that use ever more energy. A growing international consensus now calls for low-energy buildings. This means designers must first produce robust, passive structures that provide occupants with many opportunities to make changes to suit their environmental needs. Ventilation using free, natural energy should be preferred and mechanical conditioning only used when the climate demands it.
This book outlines the theory of adaptive thermal comfort that is essential to understand and inform such building designs. This book should be required reading for all students, teachers and practitioners of architecture, building engineering and management – for all who have a role in producing, and occupying, twenty-first century adaptive, low-carbon, comfortable buildings.

CONTENTS

Part 1: Theory – Building an Adaptive Model

  • Thermal Comfort – Why it is Important
  • Thermal Comfort: The Underlying Processes
  • Field Studies and the Adaptive Approach
  • The Heat Balance Approach to Defining Thermal Comfort
  • Standards, Guidelines and Legislation for the Indoor Environment
  • Low Energy Adaptive Buildings

Part 2: Practice – Conducting a Survey in the Field and Analysing the Results

  • What Sort of Survey?
  • Instruments and Questionnaires
  • Experimental Method
  • Analysis and Reporting of Field Study Data

196 pages, color & b&w ills / 17 x 24,5 cm / English

Reviews (0)

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “ADAPTIVE THERMAL COMFORT Principles and Practice”

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *