A Novel Personal Comfort System: A Radiant Desk With a Loop Heat Pipe

Abstract

This study is the second step toward the development and prototyping of a Personal Comfort System for tertiary sector working environments. The entire industrial sector, and, in particular, offices, have seen changes in working habits, with a large increase in smart working also due to prevention of COVID infection. The chance to partialize the HVAC system and maintain rooms in an under-conditioned state is the obligatory way towards reducing energy waste, providing each workstation with an independent system that guarantees the operator's comfort conditions. The goal of the second step presented in this work was to size and optimize the radiating desk, with the aim of testing an experimental demonstrator. A LHP was chosen to bring heat from the source to the desk, decoupling the heat generation and heat distribution system, without the need for additional parasitic power consumption or moving parts, adding to the innovation of the proposed design. The ergonomic optimization of the surface and its power reduction did not affect its ability to improve localized comfort, since the operators’ conditions move from a slightly cold to a neutral situation. Moreover, no discomfort due to vertical temperature differences or radiant asymmetries were found. Therefore, the next research step will lead to prototype creation and its analyses, conducted in a climatic room to test if the distribution system can satisfy comfort thermal requirements with probes as well as real users. © 2022 Free University of Bozen Bolzano. All rights reserved.