Experimental study on a chair-based personalized ventilation system

Personalized ventilation is expected to improve the quality of inhaled air and accommodate individual thermal preferences. In this paper, a chair-based personalized ventilation system is proposed that can potentially be applied in theatres, cinemas, lecture halls, aircrafts, and even offices. Air quality, thermal comfort, and the human response to this ventilation method were investigated by experiments. By comparing eight different air terminal devices (ATDs) it was found that up to 80% of the inhaled air could be composed of fresh personalized air with a supply flow rate of less than 3.0 l/s. Perceived air quality improved greatly by serving cool air directly to the breathing zone. Feelings of irritation and local drafts could be eliminated by proper designs. Personalized air with a temperature below that of room air was able to bring “a cool head” and increased thermal comfort in comparison with mixing ventilation. Massive applications of this chair-based personalized ventilation system can be envisaged in the future.