Comfort, Energy Efficiency and Adoption of Personal Cooling Systems in Warm Environments: A Field Experimental Study

Yingdong He, Nianping Li, Xiang Wang, Meiling He and He De
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Yingdong He: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Nianping Li: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Xiang Wang: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Meiling He: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
He De: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-26

Abstract: It is well known that personal cooling improves thermal comfort and save energy. This study aims to: (1) compare different personal cooling systems and (2) understand what influences users’ willingness to adopt them. A series of experiments on several types of personal cooling systems, which included physical measurements, questionnaires and feedback, was conducted in a real office environment. The obtained results showed that personal cooling improved comfort of participants in warm environments. Then an improved index was proposed and used to compare different types of personal cooling systems in terms of comfort and energy efficiency simultaneously. According to the improved index, desk fans were highly energy-efficient, while the hybrid personal cooling (the combination of radiant cooling desk and desk fan) consumed more energy but showed advantages of extending the comfortable temperature range. Moreover, if personal cooling was free, most participants were willing to adopt it and the effectiveness was the main factor influencing their willingness, whereas if participants had to pay, they probably refused to adopt it due to the cost and the availability of conventional air conditioners. Thus, providing effective and free personal cooling systems should be regarded as a better way for its wider application.

Keywords: thermal comfort; energy efficiency; radiant cooling desk; desk fan; personal cooling; logistic regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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