Why We Need to Improve Thermal Comfort in Buildings
06/30/2021
Your home should be the most comfortable place on earth
Warm drowsy meetings, stuffy classrooms, freezing office spaces, cold waiting areas or just a room at home that never seems to feel ‘warm enough’. We all understand the importance of thermal comfort.
And we all understand its impact, particularly following a year where we have spent more time inside than ever before. Our bodies are amazingly sensitive to temperature change. A lack of thermal comfort makes us feel stressed, annoyed and distracted if it is too cold— and sleepy, tired and lacking concentration if it is too hot.
Thermal comfort has widespread social implications
When we feel uncomfortable, our mood changes for the worse. As a result, thermal comfort has an impact on our well-being, productivity, and the ability to think clearly. More importantly, excessively cold or hot interiors are unhealthy— especially for the elderly, sick or vulnerable during intense heatwaves or harsh winters.
Can more thermally comfortable buildings lower hospital admissions, reduce sick days and absenteeism? Improve academic performance? Prevent accidents or improve the productivity of companies?
We know the answers already. We work better, learn better, perform better and feel healthier when we are comfortable.
Understanding thermal comfort
Simply put, thermal comfort is the condition where a person is not feeling too hot or too cold. Of course, feeling too warm or too hot is highly subjective. You cannot please all the people all the time when it comes to thermal comfort. That is why a mean internationally-recognized ‘average of comfort’, known as Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), was developed.
Thermal comfort is more than just temperature. It is influenced by six key factors:- Our metabolic rate (if we are very active or just sitting in one place all day)
- The clothes we wear
- Ambient (air) temperature
- How fast that air is moving around
- The humidity of the air
- Radiant temperature
Radiant temperature— the temperature of surfaces such as walls or windows as well as sources of heat such as the sun or a radiator— has a significant impact on comfort. For example, we may feel heat from a radiator on one side of our body while the other side may feel cool if it faces a cold window. That is why radiators are installed close to windows to improve their radiant temperature. If you switch off this radiator, you will quickly feel discomfort if you are close to this cold window even if the air temperature is still the same.
How insulation improves thermal comfort
The best long-term solution to ensure overall thermal comfort is insulation. Insulation improves both the ambient temperature and the radiant temperature of surfaces such as external walls, floors and ceilings.
Insulation blocks the path of heat. In winter, an insulated home enjoys good thermal comfort due to improved heat retention and improved wall and ceiling surface temperature. In summer, it acts as a barrier to external heat keeping interiors cooler.
Proper insulation in walls, ceilings and floors directly impacts the speed of ambient temperature change inside a building’s envelope. Without insulation, the tendency is to turn up heating or air-conditioning to compensate for temperature changes which is wasteful, increases energy bills and has a negative environmental impact.
Good air sealing is essential
To maximize the performance of insulation, it is vital to also have good air sealing, which means ‘fixing holes’ in the building — such as uninsulated attic junctions or gaps around windows — where conditioned air can leak out.
It is equally essential to use solutions that allow the building to remain air-tight but also to allow excess humidity, such as in bathrooms, to escape. A properly-vented bathroom fan will help avoid any risk of condensation.
Thermal comfort plays a large role in the way we experience the places where we live and work. Comfortable building occupants are happy, healthy and productive. Fiberglass insulation, combined with air sealing, can help make your living and work spaces more comfortable and energy efficient year-round.