Experimental Evaluation of a Radiant Panel System for Enhancing Sleep Thermal Comfort and Energy Efficiency

This study aims to experimentally evaluate a personal comfort system based on a radiant panel (R-PCS) that can regulate the thermal environment of the sleep zone during summer, with a focus on improving both the thermal comfort and energy efficiency of this system. To investigate thermal comfort under the coupling effect of different covering conditions and operating parameters of the R-PCS, the changing pattern of thermal environment parameters in the berth area and human skin temperature are analyzed. Then, the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) -Predicted Percent Dissatisfied (PPD) index is employed for assessing the thermal comfort of the human body and energy-saving efficiency of the system. The results show that this system can satisfy the thermal comfort requirements of the human body in the berth area. Meanwhile, the corresponding cooling energy consumption of the R-PCS is significantly lower than that of the traditional HVAC system, indicating that the developed system has significant energy-saving potential in building design.