EN 15251 for Energy and Thermal Environment Evaluation

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Comfort standard EN 15251 (version released in 2007) is entitled to ‘Indoor environmental input parameters for design and assessment of energy performance of buildings–addressing indoor air quality, thermal environment, lighting and acoustics.’ 

The Standard EN 15251 deals with energy performance of buildings as well as indoor environment quality such as thermal environment, indoor air quality, acoustic comfort, and visual comfort conditions to provide more comfortable indoor climate and that is also energy efficient. 

Previous research (Nicol & Wilson conducted study in 2010) has examined that EN15251 Standard helps building designers to optimise the building energy consumption, considering thermal, air quality, acoustic and visual comfort. Furthermore, studies carried out under SCATs (Smart Controls and Thermal Comfort) research project reveal that this Standard involve only European countries for energy and comfort evaluation. SCAT study derived a new comfort equation as presented below for evaluating thermal comfort in free-running buildings considering European Standard EN 15251.

Tcomf = 0.338Trm + 18.5


Here, the term Trm represents running mean outdoor temperature (oC) and Tcomf refers to comfort temperature (oC). This standard is applicable to non-industrial buildings only and does not suggest any specific method to design comfortable climate. The standard also reveals that indoor environment and occupant’s expectation influence energy consumption of buildings and states that expectation of occupants differs from naturally conditioned to air-conditioned buildings. EN1525 is developed for European climatic conditions, therefore it is applicable to similar climatic conditions and cannot be used for evaluating indoor environmental conditions in warm climatic conditions such as for Indian climatic zones.

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