Steady Thermal Comfort by Radiant Heat Transfer: The Impact of the Heater Position

This work explores the level of thermal comfort in an occupied space while optimizing the position of a radiant stove space-heating unit with a stack in the room. A finite element 3-D model is developed to accurately determine the view factors between any two surfaces in the space and the human body view factors of Chung and Kim [1 Chung, T. J. and Kim, J. Y. 1982. Radiation View Factors by Finite Elements. ASME J Heat Transfer, vol. 104: 792–795. [CSA][Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] and He [2 He, Q. 1996. A Three-Dimensional Human Radiation Model with Finite Element Model, Ph.D. Thesis Kansas State University. [Google Scholar]] using the shadowing algorithm of He [2 He, Q. 1996. A Three-Dimensional Human Radiation Model with Finite Element Model, Ph.D. Thesis Kansas State University. [Google Scholar]]. The view factor model is validated against analytical and published data. A space-heat model is developed to determine the surface temperatures, stove heat loss, and mean radiant temperature (MRT). Fanger's model [3 Fanger, P. O. 1982. “Practical Assessment of Thermal Environments”. In Thermal Comfort, Analysis and Applications in Engineering, 156–198. New York: McGraw Hill. [Google Scholar]] is used to estimate the extent of the comfort of the person as determined by predicted mean vote (PMV) and the percent of people dissatisfied (PPD). The values of MRT, PMV, and PPD depend strongly on the position of the radiant stove heater with respect to the cold window and the occupant location. Results show that it is possible to save 14% of the heating energy of the stove by changing the stove position in the room while maintaining the same level of comfort.