Thermal Comfort and Energy Consumption in Buildings
A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Thermal Engineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2025 | Viewed by 2020
Special Issue Editors
Interests: indoor and outdoor thermal comfort; energy efficiency in buildings; energy consumption in buildings; outdoor environment; thermal modelling and simulation of buildings; thermal modelling and simulation of urban microclimate; heating; ventilation; air conditioning (HVAC) systems; renewable energy
Interests: phase change materials; thermal simulation; energy efficiency in buildings; engineering thermodynamics heat; energy conversion; ventilation; heating ventilation and air-conditioning; solar energy; solar cooling
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Energy consumption in buildings is obviously linked to thermal comfort. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are the greatest energy consumers in buildings since they aim to maintain the indoor thermal comfort of occupants, bringing the indoor environment conditions within the tolerance range of the human body.
Balancing thermal comfort and energy consumption involves designing buildings with envelope solutions suited to the building-located climate, the use of high-efficiency HVAC systems in conjunction with appropriate control strategies, as well as the implementation of passive heating and cooling techniques and the use of renewable energy sources and smart building technologies. The process aimed at well-designed buildings should include an analysis of thermal comfort based on an adaptative approach, in contrast to the rational indices extracted from heat balance in the human body, since occupants can adapt to their thermal environment and have the opportunity to control it. Solutions of building envelope, systems and control, taking into account thermal comfort from an adaptative point of view, lead to lower energy consumption and therefore a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In this sense, the European Union has proposed to move from the current nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEBs) to zero-emission buildings (ZEBs) by 2030, establishing an energy efficiency requirement for new buildings as a means to comply with the longer-term climate neutrality goal.
This Special Issue focuses on the latest research in the development of innovative materials and technologies for building envelope solutions to reduce energy needs, the optimization of thermal systems and their control, and new adaptative thermal comfort developments and models that minimize the energy consumption in buildings, promoting sustainability and reducing environmental impact.
Dr. Enrique Ángel Rodríguez Jara
Dr. Álvaro Ruíz-Pardo
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- thermal comfort
- adaptative thermal comfort
- energy efficiency in buildings
- nearly zero energy building (NZEB)
- zero-emission buildings (ZEBs)
- renewable energy systems
- smart buildings
- thermal performance of buildings
- passive buildings
- building envelope and system optimization
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