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Comfort at The Extremes CATE21 Conference Proceedings
Abstract
In built environments, thermal comfort has a significant influence on human health, safety, and productivity. Its importance is more valued in thermally stressed environments that are characterized by extreme climatic conditions, where considerable amounts of energy are consumed to achieve indoor thermal comfort. The worldwide increased demand for energy and the environmental consequences of such a trend highlights the importance of this topic.
Energy and Environment are global and interrelated issues that are unconstrained by political borders. Hence, countries of the whole world must cooperate in order to find solutions to ensure the sustainability of natural resources for future generations. This reveals the importance of scientific gatherings like the 2nd International Conference of Comfort At The Extremes, [CATE’21], which was organised by the College of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, on 24th-26th October 2021. The conference provided a forum for scientists and researchers from different countries of the world and strengthens collaboration between them in the field of thermal comfort in thermally stressed environments. Researchers from more than 19 countries contributed to CATE’21 reflecting global interest in the subject.
These countries are from the MENA region (The Middle East and North Africa), the UK, Europe, Russia, Asia, the USA, and South America.
The conference attracted a good number of articles. From 83 submitted abstracts, 59 had been accepted with a retention of 71%. The accepted abstracts formed 44 papers, 15 abstracts, and 8 keynote speakers. Moreover, 8 of the papers had been further modified to be published in a special issue in The Journal of Engineering Research (TJER), published by the College of Engineering at Sultan Qaboos University (https://journals.squ.edu.om/index.php/tjer/issue/view/294/78).
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Despite the fact, that against the background of global warming the Russian Arctic is still a region with severe winters and cool summers; the likelihood of thermal stress conditions in summer is also increasing. At the same time, urban conditions can significantly affect the human heat perception due to the appearance of the urban heat island effect and other factors. Using the example of the city of Nadym (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), the authors have assessed the possibility of the summer urban heat stress occurrence and analyzed its spatial heterogeneity. The article presents the detailed modeling results of the meteorological regime of the city within the framework of the COSMO-CLM model and the assessment of bioclimatic comfort using the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) index and Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). During periods of the extremely hot weather events in Nadym, the territory meso- and microclimatic mosaicism clearly manifests itself. In anthropogenically altered territories, the frequency of strong heat stress events can exceed that in the background areas by 1.7 times. Urban planning solutions should take into account not only the climatic resistance of Arctic cities to the winter cold, but also be adapted to the occurrence of summer heat.
The use of Artificial Intelligence AI and Big data can contribute to improve energy performance in buildings. There are so many data are available in different institutions within a country such as Ministry of housing and electricity companies. The aim of this research is to propose a link between all these institutions with the aid of field measurement and occupants’ thermal sensation. The work used various methods to carry out this research including field measurement, computer modelling and survey. It was found that use of AI in existing buildings can improve energy performance significantly. The current research focused on optimization of WWR (Window to Wall Ratio) with orientation. WWR for western zones should not exceed 15% in extreme hot and humid climate and it can reduce energy consumption by 20%.
In search for adequate and affordable housing based on appropriate local building materials and technologies, theNational Fund for Housing and Rehabilitation (NFHR) has invited research institutes, professional associations andpractitioners to give their suggestions and recommendations in this regard. Demonstration models were developed to showthe appropriateness of some technologies and materials and the extent of its affordability.The purpose of this study is to carry out a comparative analysis between some of these different technologies in termsof economical and environmental contexts using Ecotect software. According to the analysis results, selected materialsfor walling and roofing are ranked based on their performance in terms of annual energy required, passive comfort, heatgains, and passive breakdown of heat gains and losses.
Frost deposits on the outdoor heat exchanger of an air source heat pump (ASHP) air conditioner and reduces its capacity during winter operation. However, the prevailing reverse-cycle defrosting (RCD) turns the indoor heat exchanger into an evaporator and ceases heat supply to the living space. Consequently, the thermal comfort for indoor occupants is deteriorated. This article proposes a heater-assisted ASHP to tackle this problem. With an 800 W electromagnetic heater equipped upstream of the outdoor heat exchanger to provide refrigerant with additional heat, the ASHP retarded frost under original throttling control and compressor speed during the heating cycle (frostless mode), and even removed frost with uninterrupted heat supply to indoor space under little throttling and reduced compressor speed (anti-frost mode). Compared with the original operation of the ASHP when the heater was off (baseline mode), frostless and anti-frost modes extended heating duration by 17.9% and 99.7%, respectively, with comparative time-averaged supply-air temperature. Moreover, COP for baseline and anti-frost modes was similar by average, about 3% higher than for the frostless mode. Further optimizations will be done on the co-adjustment of throttling control and compressor speed to better fulfill the potential of the heater-assisted ASHP.
Temperatures in Mediterranean cities are rising due to the effects of climate change, with a consequent increase in the heat waves frequency. Recent research has shown the tempering potential of semi-outdoor spaces such as courtyards, which are semi-enclosed spaces that are widely used by the users of buildings in Mediterranean cities. International standards addressing thermal comfort parameters provide technical guidelines for indoor spaces only. Expanding this concept, this paper focuses on the potential to extend and interpret the existing calculation models for indoor thermal comfort, EN 16798 and ASHRAE 55, to determine thermal comfort, monitoring two different courtyards in Cordoba, Spain, during both typical summer and heat wave periods. The results show that during the typical summer, the monitored courtyards can reach temperatures up to 8.4 °C cooler than outside. Subsequently can be considered to be in thermal comfort on average for 88% of the time according to EN 16798, and 75% according to ASHRAE 55, which drop to 71% and 52% respectively during heat wave (HW) periods, in spite of increasing thermal gap (TG) up to 13.9 °C. The results are also compared with the PET indicator used for evaluation of outdoor thermal comfort, which provides comparable figures: 81% summer and 73% HW. Implications of implementing passive shading strategies to increase comfort in these transition spaces are also evaluated. The research highlights the thermal potential and usefulness of courtyards in warm climates, so they can ultimately be included in the building analysis as a potentially comfortable and habitable space.
The building energy performance pattern is predicted to be shifted in the future due to climate change. To analyze this phenomenon, there is an urgent need for reliable and robust future weather datasets. Several ways for estimating future climate projection and creating weather files exist. This paper attempts to comparatively analyze three tools for generating future weather datasets based on statistical downscaling (WeatherShift, Meteonorm, and CCWorldWeatherGen) with one based on dynamical downscaling (a future-typical meteorological year, created using a high-quality reginal climate model). Four weather datasets for the city of Rome are generated and applied to the energy simulation of a mono family house and an apartment block as representative building types of Italian residential building stock. The results show that morphed weather files have a relatively similar operation in predicting the future comfort and energy performance of the buildings. In addition, discrepancy between them and the dynamical downscaled weather file is revealed. The analysis shows that this comes not only from using different approaches for creating future weather datasets but also by the building type. Therefore, for finding climate resilient solutions for buildings, care should be taken in using different methods for developing future weather datasets, and regional and localized analysis becomes vital.
Cooling energy demand has increased threefold in the Middle East (ME) over the last 30-years. This is driven by the need to maintain thermal comfort in an extremely hot climate, and supported by rising incomes, falling costs of airconditioning and growth in the number of buildings. The definition of thermal comfort in these buildings is drawn from "international" standards, which, though empirically derived, have no basis data from this region. Hence, we ask, to what extent do indoor conditions in the ME fall within the standards recommended range of thermal comfort, and when they do, whether they are found to be comfortable by their occupants. We present the first large-scale study of thermal comfort in the ME, consisting of two approaches: (i) a meta-analysis of data from existing studies, (ii) independent field data covering four countries representing 27% of the region's population, 31 air-conditioned buildings of different types, including "green" buildings, and 1,101 subjects. The meta-analysis demonstrates that current thermal comfort standards fail to predict thermal sensation of 94% of occupants. Our own data show that, while indoor conditions are within standards-recommended ranges 58% of the time, only 40% of occupants find these conditions acceptable. We find evidence of overcooling in summers, with 39% occupants expressing cold discomfort. Computer models suggest that this is likely to have increased annual cooling energy demand between 13%-20%, compared to non-overcooled conditions. These results suggest the necessity of localised thermal comfort standards that mitigate excess cooling energy demand, without compromising occupant thermal comfort.
This literature review summarizes the results of international studies conducted by WHO, WMO, EU, and other organizations, in the areas of assessment of climate change-induced urban health risks, and development of action plans for adaptation of public health care and other public governance bodies to climate change. The results of studies of the relationships between heat waves, cold spells, and mortality rates conducted in Russian cities have also been critically reviewed. The study cites included the largest cities (Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, etc.) situated in various climate zones: Arctic, South European part of Russia, continental and monsoon climate zones. These studies showed that heat waves in the cities with moderately continental climate typically lead to greater increases in all-cause mortality rates than cold spells, relative to the cities located in other climate zones. At the same time, the health impacts of cold spells were more pronounced than those of heat waves in the north cities, which was not observed in the Russian South or Middle Siberia cities. On average, cold spells are characterized by greater health risks in the north cities than in the south cities. The values of the 3rd and 97th percentiles of long-term distributions of daily mean temperatures can be used as the threshold values for hazardous cold and heat waves. The health action plans should be activated when daily mean temperatures fall below the cold threshold, or exceed the heat threshold. The values of temperature thresholds depend upon local climates and are similar to hygienic standards. Russia has adopted a National Plan for adaptation to health risks induced by climate change. This plan includes the measures specifically aimed at reductions of excess mortality during heat waves and cold spells. The National Plan prescribes that similar plans should be developed for all administrative subjects of the Russian Federation. Implementation of heat wave (or cold spell) early warning systems in combination with other preventive measures can effectively reduce the numbers of excess deaths during extreme weather events.
This paper explores a form of sensuous methodology known as smellwalks. Smellwalks are a method which require a reorientation of the senses to temporarily emphasize the information received from the nose. During a smellwalk, the researcher employs an active form of smelling to examine their environment that diverges from normal smell perception. In this research, smellwalks are deployed to investigate the experience of lockdown in a suburban town in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Six solo walks were undertaken, three during lockdown and three out of it, to compare the presence and absence of smells during these periods. In attuning to the invisible, intangible, mundane, and small details of life via smell, smellwalks opened opportunities for new embodied and material knowledge about lockdown experience. It is argued that smellwalks offer a sensory and embodied method with the capacity to attend to more than vision and representation.