Comparison of human thermal models, measured results and questionnaires

Increasing concern about building sector energy consumption and the simultaneous need for an acceptable thermal environment makes it necessary to estimate in advance what effect different thermal factors will have on occupants. So far most human thermal comfort models are based on estimates assuming steady-state conditions. However, this often leads to underestimations of local cold or hot surfaces. These kinds of models does not take into account variable conditions. In this paper measurement results from a real office building were used as input values for two methods to comparing predict thermal comfort and user  questionnaires. This paper shows the differences between these two methods and highlights also the importance of using a right method in estimating thermal comfort in order to prevent over dimensioning of heating or cooling devices which might lead to  unnecessary energy consumption.