CHARACTERIZATION OF PERSONAL COMFORT SYSTEMS BY MEANS OF SUBJECTIVE COMFORT INVESTIGATION

Personal Comfort Systems (PCS) are appliances aimed at controlling the indoor environmental parameters just in the near field of a person. The ultimate goal is to create a “comfort bubble” around the occupants. These systems are widespread on the market and are used, since long time, as a secondary equipment to back up or support centralized heating/cooling systems. This explains why, so far, the research done on PCS is relatively limited and the design procedures are typically and frequently borrowed from the sector of centralised HVAC systems. Nevertheless, needs, features and the perception of the occupants are quite different if PCS and centralized systems are compared. The paper will present and discuss the activity done on two Bladeless Fan Heater/Coolers and their performance analysis. The attention will be focussed on the subjective characterization of the thermal comfort. Firstly, an overview of the procedure adopted to prepare a questionnaire specifically devoted to study the PCS is given. Secondly, the results of the questionnaires, which involved more the 40 subjects for each appliance, will be given. Finally, a critical discussion will be developed to highlight the needs for the future research and the development of the design procedures of PCS.