Design strategies for decreasing cooling demand and increasing individual thermal comfort in open-plan offices: A review

This study presents a state of the art review of ventilation systems that provide occupants with desired individual thermal comfort while minimizing cooling demand in offices. Conventionally, air terminal devices (ATDs) used in building ventilation systems operate to distribute air uniformly to all workstations, but these systems can not satisfy individual thermal comfort preferences. Using task ambient ventilation systems (TASs) with a variety of ATDs is an energy efficient solution which creates separate microclimate zone for each individual in office buildings. However, they cause draft problems due to high air movement. Whereas the proposed ventilation system will set up different operating criteria for ATDs to make them work in different ways through the control of supply air velocity and direction. This review paper discusses the developments in functionality, design and performance of the ventilation systems till date in providing local indoor climate while identifying the future course in design strategies.