by Shane Henson — September 19, 2011—Facilities personnel often get complaints that the buildings they manage are too hot or too cold, but a new tool offered by The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) could help them keep the temperature just right.
ASHRAE Thermal Comfort Tool, Version 2, provides a user-friendly interface to predict thermal comfort, based on the society’s standard for thermal environmental conditions, ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55-2010, Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy. The standard specifies the combinations of indoor thermal environmental factors and personal factors that will produce thermal environmental conditions acceptable to a majority of the occupants within the space.
The tool makes thermal comfort predictions using several existing thermal comfort models, including the Adaptive and Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) models. Inclusion of these models can potentially improve occupant comfort by allowing engineers to more easily fine tune their comfort analysis to the particular needs of the occupants in the building.
The cost of the ASHRAE Thermal Comfort Tool is $117 ($99 for ASHRAE members).
