Comparison between different thermal comfort models based on the exergy analysis

Abstract

The paper deals with an analysis of existing thermal comfort models based on exergy approach and the impact of models’ input parameters to the calculation results. The aim of this paper is to present the results of the application of five different thermal comfort models based on the exergy analysis, to compare them, and to determine if they coincide with the results obtained by using Fanger’s model. While models that are the most commonly used to evaluate and predict thermal comfort conditions are based on the first law of thermodynamics, a handful of authors used both the first and the second law of thermodynamics in order to develop new thermal comfort models. Even though the optimal comfort conditions according to these models may not differ by large margin from the optimal thermal comfort conditions according to Fanger’s model, it is concluded that justification of using models based on the exergy analysis to evaluate thermal comfort is very dependent on the input parameters, which should all be taken into consideration separately.