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On the Use of Wearable Face and Neck Cooling Fans to Improve Occupant Thermal Comfort in Warm Indoor Environments

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  • Bin Yang

    (School of Energy and Safety Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China
    School of Building Services Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China)

  • Tze-Huan Lei

    (College of Physical Education, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi 435002, China)

  • Pengfei Yang

    (School of Building Services Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China)

  • Kaixuan Liu

    (Apparel and Art Design College, Xi’an Polytechnic University, Xi’an 710048, China)

  • Faming Wang

    (School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China)

Abstract

Face and neck cooling has been found effective in improving thermal comfort during exercise in the heat despite the fact that the surface area of human face and neck regions accounts for only 5.5% of the entire body. Presently very little documented research has been conducted to investigate cooling the face and neck only to improve indoor thermal comfort. In this study, two highly energy efficient wearable face and neck cooling fans were used to improve occupant thermal comfort in two warm indoor conditions (30 and 32 °C). Local skin temperatures and perceptual responses while using the two wearable cooling fans were examined and compared. Results showed that both cooling fans could significantly reduce local skin temperatures at the forehead, face and neck regions by up to 2.1 °C. Local thermal sensation votes at the face and neck were decreased by 0.82–1.21 scale unit at the two studied temperatures. Overall TSVs decreased by 1.03–1.14 and 1.34–1.66 scale units at 30 and 32 °C temperatures, respectively. Both cooling fans could raise the acceptable HVAC temperature setpoint to 32.0 °C, resulting in a 45.7% energy saving over the baseline HVAC setpoint of 24.5 °C. Furthermore, occupants are advised to use the free-control cooling mode when using those two types of wearable cooling fans to improve thermal comfort. Finally, despite some issues on dry eyes and dry lips associated with those wearable cooling fans, it is concluded that those two highly energy-efficient wearable cooling fans could greatly improve thermal comfort and save HVAC energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Bin Yang & Tze-Huan Lei & Pengfei Yang & Kaixuan Liu & Faming Wang, 2021. "On the Use of Wearable Face and Neck Cooling Fans to Improve Occupant Thermal Comfort in Warm Indoor Environments," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:23:p:8077-:d:694036
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ghahramani, Ali & Zhang, Kenan & Dutta, Kanu & Yang, Zheng & Becerik-Gerber, Burcin, 2016. "Energy savings from temperature setpoints and deadband: Quantifying the influence of building and system properties on savings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 930-942.
    2. Joost van Hoof, 2015. "Female thermal demand," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(12), pages 1029-1030, December.
    3. Boris Kingma & Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, 2015. "Energy consumption in buildings and female thermal demand," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(12), pages 1054-1056, December.
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    Cited by:

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