Assessment of thermal comfort near a glazed exterior wall

In many highly glazed buildings, the thermal comfort of the occupants will tend to be related to the incoming solar energy and the solar heat gain coefficient of the glazing. Many real buildings tend to be deep relative their height and therefore, areas close to the facade receive a much greater amount of the incoming energy than those farther from it. In turn, this imbalance leads to occupants near the facade experiencing a high dissatisfaction with their thermal environment (near-facade zone). This study experimentally examines the thermal environment of occupants near the facade of a glazed building wall. It presents results for Fangers’ predicted mean vote (PMV) and the predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) and explores some options for improving the thermal environment in this near-facade zone.