Dear All,
We are looking for some advices on thermal comfort compliance upon IEQc7.1.
Our project is an industrial building with office and production spaces located in climate zone 6. There are heating and ventilation systems provided for the winter. For the summer it is designed that these ventilation systems to operate based on Outdoor air (100%) only. No cooling coils are provided. All spaces have operable windows, but without any control on their functioning.
While applying the ASHRAE Std. 55- 2010 Comfort Tool software, we are facing the following problems:
1.) Since there is no cooling system for the summer, the spaces presumably are understood as naturally conditioned. However we cannot use the 5.3. Optional Method as the building doesn’t meet all necessary requirements – the lowest outdoor temperature is -15.9 F and we have activities with MET>1.3. The question for this issue is: For the summer period, what space temperature should we enter in the Comfort Tool software and what MRT value?
2.) In the production spaces, the metabolic rate is greater than 2.0 MET. Is there some trade-off for these type of spaces and should we present the program output for them, although they don’t meet the requirements of the standard?
Thanks.