Thermal Comfort

Thermal comfort in built environments is an everyday issue for architects and technicians and one that has been dealt with widely in scientific literature. This article provides an overview of the concepts and methods relating to the definition of thermal comfort and the possible ways of assessing it. The ways of controlling thermal conditions and ensuring that built environments are suitable are discussed. Specific attention is given to moderate thermal environments, in which thermal comfort conditions for people are produced using natural or mechanical systems. Indeed, these systems play a major role during the process of designing built environments. Some attention is also given to severe thermal environments (in which conditions of thermal stress should be applied). Taking these aspects into consideration, a description of some rational methods for evaluating thermal comfort and thermal stress conditions is provided. These are essentially based on the human body’s thermal balance equation, originally proposed by P. O. Fanger and now included in some International Organization for Standardization International Standard Certificate requirements.