Thermal comfort zone of radiant cooling system in residential buildings in hot and humid regions

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of thermal conditions created by radiant cooling systems on thermal sensation and then to propose comfortable conditions in residential buildings in hot and humid climates. The study includes a subjective experiment and a thermal manikin experiment, which were conducted in model living rooms inside a climate chamber. Both experiments were conducted in 18 different thermal conditions. The results suggest that the influence of constitution cannot be ignored because the psychological response was extremely different from subjects with cold constitution and those without it. Comfortable conditions were determined based on thermal sensation, skin temperature, and sensible heat loss, then it is proposed that the comfortable range of operative temperature considering differences in constitution is 25.7°C to 28.7°C. Moreover, it was suggested that thermal comfort was enhanced by using floor cooling and radiator even under hot environment.