Category: Comfort

CBE Researchers Present New Methods for Design-phase Analysis of Daylighting, Ventilation and Comfort

CBE Researchers Present New Methods for Design-phase Analysis of Daylighting, Ventilation and Comfort

The gap between predicted and measured building performance poses an ongoing challenge for design teams and other building industry stakeholders. Because reliable methods for predicting building performance are critical to addressing this challenge, students, researchers and faculty at CBE are developing and testing new approaches to building performance simulation. In this post we describe recent and upcoming papers that discuss new and innovative simulation methods.

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2018 Livable Buildings Award Winner Announced

2018 Livable Buildings Award Winner Announced

Now in its twelfth year, the Livable Buildings Award recognizes projects that demonstrate high occupant satisfaction, excellent design, and innovative operation strategies. This year, we are pleased to announce the Rocky Mountain Institute Innovation Center as the top winner, with an honorable mention for the Pomona College Seaver Laboratory and Andrew Science Hall.

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Interactive Thermal Comfort Tools add to CBE’s Public Offerings

Interactive Thermal Comfort Tools add to CBE’s Public Offerings

We launched a new suite of free and publicly available online resources to facilitate academic and professional studies of thermal comfort in buildings. These tools can be used to inform questions about thermal comfort, and to encourage the design of climate-responsive and comfortable low energy (and ZNE) buildings.

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CBE Research on Ceiling Fans May Help Tackle Future Global Challenges

CBE Research on Ceiling Fans May Help Tackle Future Global Challenges

CBE research has quantified what we all know intuitively: ceiling fans can provide acceptable comfort at temperatures that otherwise would be stifling. This enables passive solutions in milder climates, and may reduce the reliance on air conditioning in climates where passive solutions alone are not sufficient.

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CBE and Engineering Leader Sanken to Collaborate on Radiant Cooling Technologies

CBE and Engineering Leader Sanken to Collaborate on Radiant Cooling Technologies

This April, CBE welcomed to its consortium Sanken, a Japan-based engineering leader that will collaborate with researchers at CBE and overseas on radiant cooling technologies. This new collaboration builds on Sanken’s efforts that span several decades to innovate and provide customers with reliable and advanced systems and facilities.

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Comfort in Buildings, and Vehicles Too

Comfort in Buildings, and Vehicles Too

The emerging trend toward smart electric vehicles is creating new opportunities for synergistic innovations that are applicable to both buildings and cars. Model-based control concepts, greatly advanced by the automotive sector, are now being tested in the control of complex commercial buildings. These synergies, what we might call the building-automotive nexus, are also reflected in CBE’s body of research on thermal comfort.

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Using an Internet of Things Platform to Improve Comfort Prediction

Using an Internet of Things Platform to Improve Comfort Prediction

The emerging Internet of Things offers opportunities to improve how we design, measure and operate buildings. CBE’s research team conducted a six-month field demonstration of a system using IoT-connected heated and cooled office chairs. Results demonstrated high levels of comfort seen in few buildings. In addition, the data from occupants’ use of the chairs can be used to predict thermal comfort more accurately than methods previously available.

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