This article revisits the Equivalent Contact Temperature (ECT) model by incorporating winter scenarios with seat heating, which were unaddressed in previous studies. The research focuses on enhancing the model's accuracy in evaluating thermal comfort for seated individuals under non-uniform conditions, particularly for the buttocks and back. These contact areas are crucial for both local and overall comfort, especially with Personalised Environmental Control Systems (PECS), like seat heating and ventilation, which operate close to the body. PECS are more energy efficient than traditional HVAC systems, offering customisation to individual comfort preferences while enhancing individual thermal comfort and energy efficiency in buildings and vehicles. A participant study at air temperatures of 17 °C and 18 °C validated the ECT approach, confirming the effectiveness of seat heating and revealing key correlations between ECT values and thermal comfort ratings. Additionally, an equivalent skin temperature and a comfort evaluation scheme for winter conditions were introduced. 

Equivalent contact temperature (ECT) for personal comfort assessment – definition of comfort limits for winter conditions

Personalized low-cost thermal comfort monitoring using IoT technologies

Heating and ventilation in buildings and vehicles are responsible for over a third of global final energy usage and the resulting emissions. Local climatization can help to save energy while at the same time enable more individualized and adapted micro-climates around people. For the domain of local comfort, integrative test environments for sensors, actuators, and control software are scarce, and oftentimes tailored to a specific set of components. Here, a server-based modular testing infrastructure which allows integration and evaluation of sensors, actuators, and control strategies is presented. Currently, the system is able to integrate, monitor, and log data of thermal imaging, motion sensing, environmental sensor such as temperature or air velocity and to forward signals to actuators such as fans, infrared- or contact-heaters. The generation of control signals is model-based and relies on user feedback provided via the system’s smartphone app. Lastly, learning algorithms can be trained and compared during user studies. Practical Application: Although developed in a laboratory based research context, the proposed system is based on open standards and protocols. It therefore can be applied by practitioners, developers, and manufacturers in order to test stand-alone components as well as ensembles of sensors and actuators for personalized climatization in an integrative and replicable manner.

Modular personalized climatization testing infrastructure with smartphone-based user feedback

This paper introduces the equivalent contact temperature (ECT) model for local thermal comfort assessment in contact areas for non-uniform environmental conditions. It aims to complete the comfort evaluation scheme of the equivalent temperature approach included in ISO 14505-2 by the contact areas back and buttocks that are currently neglected in the standard. For the assessment of local and overall thermal comfort of seated persons, these contact areas are of great importance, especially if exposed to personal comfort systems. Person-oriented climatization systems, such as seat heating and ventilation, are much more energy efficient than conventional HVAC systems and allow to incorporate the human individual into the system's control loop. The ECT-approach is formally defined, analytically as well as mathematically derived and validated by a subject study. The results of the subject study (air temperature of 26 °C and 29 °C) confirm the cooling effect due to the seat ventilation and show fundamental correlations between ECTs and body part specific mean thermal votes for buttocks and back.

Equivalent Contact Temperature (ECT) for personal comfort assessment - Analytical description and definition of comfort limits.

Local personalized heating in a field study - Suggestions for implementation of Personalized Environmental Control Systems in real offices

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Alexander Warthmann

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Modular personalized climatization testing infrastructure with smartphone-based user feedback

Equivalent Contact Temperature (ECT) for personal comfort assessment - Analytical description and definition of comfort limits.

Local personalized heating in a field study - Suggestions for implementation of Personalized Environmental Control Systems in real offices