Two new publications are up!

Mean radiant temperature review

Super excited to see that the review of mean radiant temperature that I authored is to be published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews! Worked on this particular review for a really long period of time - and hopefully it would provide an in-depth review into the concept, its shortcomings and limitations as much as its benefits in the design of building systems. The current understanding of mean radiant temperature assumes many things: that it is almost equivalent to the measurement of globe thermometers - and is therefore singlular to an indoor space, and can sometimes even be approximated by air temperatures. Many of these assumptions may have been true for air-conditioned rooms with temperate environments outside. However, for environments that have radiant asymmetry due to the choice of building system (radiant systems such as radiant floors or chilled beams) and geometries (large glass façade) will likely result in gross over/underestimate of the system performance.

Increasing complaints or increasing challenges?

Also accepted - and now in proof stage is the air temperature and mean radiant temperature paper, focusing on a particular curious relationship between the two most important means of heat transfer for occupants indoors: convection and radiation. Within the scope of comparing different system configurations and building geometries, simulation of air temperature is much more difficult to manage than mean radiant temperature. Meanwhile, within a given environment, mean radiant temperature is much more difficult to measure than air temperature. Their relationship works both ways and is increasingly difficult to envision without a study that compares the spatial and temporal variation of the two physical propoerties.

Upcoming new publications on operative temperature - and other gross esimations/assumptions.

Upong examining the mean radiant temperature and its relationship to air temperature, it has came to my attention that many of the existing literature take the many underlying assumptions for granted, and are inclined to use the existing standards (such as ASHRAE 55 and ISO ⁷⁷²⁶⁄₇₇₃₀) as the go-to source as well-established facts rather than empirical results from precedents that requires further examination and understanding. To better understand these underlying assumptions, it is crucial to perform another review, focusing primarily on these well-established assumptions. On the basis of these observations, I have compiled a new research paper that tries to characterize how adversely these assumptions could affect our understanding and characterization of the thermal environment.