Chilled ceiling and displacement ventilation aided with personalized evaporative cooler

This paper aims at studying the energy impact of a chilled ceiling displacement ventilation CC/DV system aided with a personalized evaporative cooler (PEC) directed towards the occupant trunk and face. A simulation model is developed for integrating the personalized cooler with the ascending thermal plume. The thermal model of the conditioned room air around the person is integrated with a segmental bioheat and thermal comfort model to predict the human thermal comfort.The model is validated with experimental data on the vertical temperature distribution in the room, and the recorded overall comfort perceived by surveyed subjects. Experimental results agreed well with predicted values of temperature and comfort level. When using personalized cooling, the DV supply air temperature can be as high as 24 °C while the PEC at flow rates of 3–10 l/s achieved similar comfort with a DV system at supply temperature of 21 °C. At equal thermal comfort level, the integrated CC/DV system, PEC model resulted in up to 17.5% energy savings compared to the CC/DV system without a PEC. When mixed air is used in the CC/DV system additional 25% savings in energy is realized when compared with energy used for the 100% fresh air without the PEC.

► Room conditioned by CC/DV system aided with PEC.
► Thermal model developed of PEC jet entrained with occupant thermal plume.
► PEC effect on person thermal comfort obtained using bioheat and thermal comfort models.
► CC/DV-PEC model and comfort assessment tools were validated by experimentation.
► For same comfort level, CC/DV-PEC has potential to save energy compared to CC/DV in hot and dry climate.