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Thermal Comfort Principles and Practical Applications for
Residential Buildings
by Robert Bean, Fellow
ASHRAE, Distinguished Lecturer, Retired Engineering
Technology Practitioner
Three Key Principles:
Heat loss and gain
calculations are not thermal comfort calculations.
HVAC design in of itself is not thermal comfort design.
HVAC contracting in of itself is not thermal comfort
contracting.
Download the book for the
details of what thermal comfort design is all about.
Popular Topics
Alliesthesia
& Homeostasis
Academic Scores due to IEQ
Advice for Consumers: Radiant
Aging: Thermal Comfort & IAQ
ASHRAE 62.2 2011
vs. 2013
Bathroom
Fans: Renovation
Being an Engineer
Bibliography: Radiant/Comfort
Bibliography: Indoor Air Quality
Budgeting: Indoor Climates
Budgeting:
Design Services
Building
Efficiency Categories
Building
Enclosures, Part I
Building Enclosures, Part II
Building Orientation
Built to Code: Means what?
Building
Science w/ SEM
Concrete & Embedded Pipes
Comfort:
A Condition of Mind
Comfort or
Energy Efficiency?
Conduction
Animation
Consulting
Services (ICCI)
Control
Valve Theory
Convection
Animation
Dedicated Outdoor
Air System
Design: Before
You Start
Design: Downward heat loss
Design: Sample Commercial
Design:
Sample Residential
Design: Sample
Schematics
DIY HVAC
Duct Tape: Not for
Ducts
Earth Tube Heat Exch.'s
Effectiveness Coefficients
Efficiency:
Boilers
Energy/Exergy Efficiency
Engineers: Do I Need
One?
Engineers:
Residential Fees
Embedded
Pipes in Concrete
Ergonomics & Productivity
Exergy & Sustainability
Exposome: An Introduction
Filter
Fist-a Cuffs
Floor Temperatures
Flooring R values
Flooring and Boiler Efficiency
Forensic Services
Health and HVAC systems
Heat
Transfer: Introduction
Heat, Air, Moisture Modelling
Heated Hardwood Flooring
History of Radiant Heating
History of the HRV/ERV
Human Factors
Human Thermal Plume
Humidity & the Environment
HVAC & Energy Efficiency
HVAC
Does Not Equal IEQ
Hybrid:
Landmines to Avoid
Hybrid HVAC Systems
Hydronics:Codes
& Inspections
IAQ
Health Diagnostics
IAQ Investigator
IAQ VOC
Simulator
IEQ and Energy
IEQ and Health
IEQ and
Productivity
IEQ Research
IEQ Residential
IEQ Self Assessment
Form
Indoor climate system scores
Infiltration
Integrated Design: Project Ove
Integrated Design:
illiteracy
Kitchen Range Hoods
LED Lights & Lamps
Lifetime Housing
Mean Radiant
Temperature
Moisture Monitoring
Operative Temperature
Organisms in Your Home
Passive
Heating
Passive
Cooling
Paying for Downgrades
Radiant
Animation
Radiant Based HVAC Guide
Radiant Cooling, Introduction
Radiant Cooling, Projects
Radiant Cooling,
Calculation
Radiant
Cooling Systems, Pt 1
Radiant
Cooling Systems, Pt 2
Radiant
Cooling Systems, Pt 3
Radiant
Cooling Systems, Pt 4
Radiant
Cooling Systems, Pt 5
Radiant
Cooling Systems, Pt 6
Radiant
Cooling Systems, Pt 7
Radiant Design Guide Level 1
Radiant Design Guide Level 2
Radiant Design Guide Level 3
Radiant Enables Efficiency
Radiant Facts and Myths
Radiant Flooring
Guide
Radiant Gone Wild
Radiant
History, 1868 A.D.
Radiant
History, 1500 B.C
Radiant Mistakes to Avoid
Radiant Theory
Radiant Tube Depth: Effects
Radiant
Walls for Retrofits
Radiation
Pressure of Light
Radon
Reflective Insulation: Myths
Relative
Humidity
Six Rules for
Designers
Snow Melting Storm Data
Solar
Sustainability
Temperature
Indices
Temperatures:
Inside Surfaces
Thermal Comfort
Thermal Comfort
for Auditors
Thermal Comfort
Calculator
Thermal Comfort & IAQ
Thermal Comfort Myths
Thermal
Comfort: Principles
Thermal
Comfort: Endocrine
Thermal Comfort: Perspective
Thermal Comfort Survey Part I
Thermal Comfort Survey
Part II
Thermal
Manikins: Research
Thermography
Thermostats: Setback
Thermostats
vs Skin Sensors
Vocabulary of Thermal Comfort
Toxic
Homes (CARP)
Transient Soil
Temperatures
Under slab insulation
Validating Designs
Water Heater Efficiency
Water Heaters as Boilers
Windows
for Cold Climates
Walls for Cold Climates
Zoning a
Building Guide
Building and IEQ Wisdom
28 bits of wit, wisdom & witticisms
“…a rational calculation of heating and air-conditioning systems
must begin with the conditions for comfort…”
Prof. P.O. Fanger
"Current building codes do not specify
criteria for IAQ; they simply mandate the capacity of the
ventilation system"
National Research Canada
Visitors Feedback
Others
are saying...
Website statistics 2012
Awards
The Carlson - Holohan
Industry Award of Excellence
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Next year will be our
20th year anniversary, first stablished in 2004 as
an educational experiment.
Energy & Indoor Environmental Quality - News
SPECIAL BULLETINS
Dealing with Wildfire Smoke
CoVid Program for Alberta
and British Colombia Educational Facility Design Professionals
and Managers
How to set up an emergency CoVid19 isolation room in your home,
condo or apartment.
North American Version
India Version
Simplified and Idealized
Illustration of a Portable Fan/Filter (Corsi Rosenthal)
Box in a Classroom
North American Version
Sign the Petition
WHO must raise the alarm to the dangers of aerosol
transmission
Carlson-Holohan Industry Award of
Excellence Finds Permanent Home in an
American Institution.
New feature page:
Humidity: An
Important Nexus in Indoor Environmental Engineering
Design for People - Good
Buildings Will Follow

Since the times of Hippocrates, Vitruvius,
Nightingale and Galton, the health sciences and building sciences
have studied
energy
and indoor
environmental quality.
Do
you really know what thermal comfort is?
Image Credit:©
Dr. Gary Settles
The fundamentals of thermal comfort

Image Credit:
©Dr. ArthurTucker/SPL
Room
thermostats vs your own thermostats

Image Credit: © Martin Dohrn / SPL
Modelling thermal comfort

Screen shot from ASHRAE 1383 Software
What makes a building comfortable?

Finite Element Analysis of
two wall assemblies. Image credit © Bean / Posey.
Blue is the outer surfaces. Notice the cold penetrating the wood
stud in the bottom image but not in the top image.
How will your indoor climate system score?
Building sciences: Scanned electron microscope (SEM)
images of materials of construction 
Flooring Guides

365 Day Transient Soil Temperature Analysis
Finite Element Analysis of
hourly temperatures around a foundation in Calgary,
Alberta
Other Resources
Indoor Air
Quality @ Home
Quotes on IEQ
Suggested Resources
For the kids
Indoor Air Quality
IAQ
Research Resources
Dr. Jessica Green, Microbes: Buildings are complex ecosystems
Dr. Charles J. Weschler, Healthy Buildings Research: New
Developments, Future Directions and Potential Solutions
|
Still available for 2022/23
Project Counselling Services
Past Clients
40+ years of experience working with clients on project
planning, design and management. Bean is frequently quoted in
news publications including the Washington Post, Bloomberg News,
Wall Street Journal, ASHRAE Journal, HPAC Magazine, ProBuilder
and many others.
Wall Street Journal Video Interview with
Robert Bean
Why Your Office Feels So Cold
ASHRAE Journal Podcast on Thermal
Comfort with ASHRAE Fellows Robert Bean and Peter Simmonds,
Ph.D.
Thermal Comfort in the Real World
IAQ Radio Interview: What you see is
what you get...Bean's no BS observations on
Architecture, building science, IAQ and CoVid19
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