Abstract
Short-wave solar radiation may have a large impact on the indoor thermal sensation of occupants. However, most of the thermal comfort models do not include its effect. Some researchers have proposed the correction of the mean radiant temperature as a valid method to overcome this limitation and have used it in conjunction with the steady-state Fanger comfort model. This work aims at contrasting the effects of the mean radiant temperature correction in four commonly used steady-state and dynamic comfort indexes. For the comparison, a thermal model of a 100 m2 shoebox office located in Milan (Italy) is used. The indexes are calculated for a grid of points distributed in the space and results reported using two long-term metrics: Thermal Comfort Availability (TCA) and Thermal Comfort Usability (TCU). Quite consistent results have been found across the models and in particular, with steady-state models, showing that in a conditioned space both steady and unsteady approaches can be acceptable.