Thermal Comfort Modelling

Why is Thermal Comfort Modelling important?

Understanding thermal comfort is important to architecture, since it not only lays the foundation for building design, but also affects the field of sustainable design.

Feeling comfortable in an interior space directly impacts people’s mood. In office buildings, working in optimal conditions enables us to think and work better, and thermal comfort contributes not only to well-being but even to productivity. Eliminating potential health hazards is also a very important aspect of maintaining ideal thermal comfort.

There are many uses where being able to calculate thermal comfort is important. Here are some typical uses of thermal comfort in a design project:

• The project has a natural ventilation component and the envelope needs to be designed to maximise the frequency of comfortable conditions
• The project includes zones with large amounts of glazing and it's important to see how comfortable occupants near that glazing are likely to be
• The project is working towards a green rating or compliance outcome relating to comfort and early tests of designs need to be carried out to see whether it's on track to achieve the required performance.