A field study on the effect of cold radiation on human thermal comfort in winter

A field survey of indoor thermal environment was conducted on four office buildings in Harbin. It aims to research the effect of cold radiation on human thermal comfort in winter. The results showed that the average indoor temperature of buildings with floor heating (FH) systems was as high as 27.53 °C, which was 3.2 °C higher than that of the buildings with radiator heating (RH) systems. And thus indoor environment was too warm in FH rooms which seriously affected occupants' thermal comfort. In addition, FH building was less affected by cold radiation from the external windows and walls. However, people complained local thermal discomfort of legs and feet under the overheated environment. In RH buildings, among the votes of local thermal sensation, a large amount of subjects who were within 2m from external windows voted "cold" and complained "shoulder" and "back" were significantly suffered by the cold radiation from exterior envelope.