Evaluation of parameters and models of human thermal comfort: an overview

Thermal comfort and human well-being is a phenomenon that has been studied over the years because directly affects the entire population of the planet. Today, with the technological advances, there is a big number of objects and systems that are becoming more and more automated in terms of air conduction, ventilation and air conditioning, making comfortable conditions possible over time. Although technology makes it possible to change indoor environmental conditions flexibly and instantaneously, these systems must know how, when and why they must change the environmental conditions. This thesis is based on a literature review of the parameters that influence human thermal comfort and the methods and models found over the last few decades to quantify it. It reviews articles on the first static models, the first adaptive models, in order to study the hypothesis of our parameters, which historically were not considered to be influential, but from new techniques that allow technological advances, it has been possible to prove their importance. Since there are many parameters that influence thermal comfort and these interact with others, it is very difficult to obtain expressions or models that describe human thermal comfort in a precise way. In addition, each person has different physiological characteristics which, together with psychological and behavioral characteristics, determine human comfort. The aim of this thesis is to identify which factors influencing comfort have been considered over time and which ones have been discovered recently. Another objective is to identify how new technologies can be used for thermal comfort. The method for meeting these objectives has been the literature review. As a result, a total of 20 factors that influence human thermal comfort and 5 new technologies that can help both the research of thermal comfort and its application in buildings have been identified. As conclusions, the interaction between the user and the research element (both human and machine) is essential to evaluate comfort and to be able to research it. Another conclusion is that new technologies play an important role in the study of comfort. Although many are still under development, they have great potential