Personalized heating : comparison of heaters and control modes

Personalized conditioning systems represent a promising solution to two major challenges in building industry – high energy consumption of the buildings and still only mediocre thermal comfort. These systems create a microenvironment adapted for each user. Therefore, individual demands for thermal comfort can be met and energy can be saved due to higher effectiveness compared to the traditional HVAC systems. This study investigates two aspects of personalized heating – effectiveness of different heaters and impact of different control modes. Personalized heating system consisting of a heated chair, a heated desk mat, and a heated floor mat was tested with 13 test subjects in a climate chamber under operative temperature of 18 °C. The heaters were tested separately and in combination as user controlled. Furthermore, the complete system was tested with fixed setting and automatic control using hand skin temperature as a control signal. The heated chair and the heated desk mat as well as the complete system significantly improved thermal comfort, while the heated chair was found to the most effective heater. The automatic control mode could provide the same level of thermal comfort as user control in this study.