Thermal comfort and ventilation effectiveness in an office room with radiant floor cooling and displacement ventilation

The influence of displacement ventilation and a cooled floor on indoor climate in the cooling season were experimentally studied in a room representing an office with a shaded window, occupied by two simulated employees. The aim was to investigate whether the combination of these two systems can retain the favorable air and temperature distribution patterns and high ventilation effectiveness that are typically attained by displacement ventilation, while exploiting the energy conservation advantages of a high temperature cooling system. The tests were performed under a range of boundary conditions, varying the nominal air change rate from 4.5 h−1 down to 1.5 h−1. Contaminant removal and mean-age-of-air measurements were performed to characterize the ventilation effectiveness and air velocity; air and operative temperature profiles were measured, together with thermal manikin equivalent temperatures, to evaluate the thermal environment. The combined system was able to achieve good ventilation effectiveness ...