The effect of solar radiation on both long term thermal comfort assessment and building energy consumptions.

This paper investigates the influence of solar radiation on thermal comfort inside an environment and its effect on the building energy consumptions. Furthermore, it draws up a procedure which allows the rating of the thermal comfort quality of indoor environments in the presence of solar radiation, to be used in correlation with the energy classification of building, in order to refer energy performance to environmental conditions. Mean Radiant Temperatures (MRT) for a subject exposed to solar radiation in different positions of the environment and, with an hourly time step, for a whole year, have been calculated by means of an algorithm proposed by some of the authors. These values have been utilized to assess the Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD) and its variation with time and space, so that long term thermal comfort evaluations were able to be carried out and comparisons among irradiated and not irradiated positions were able to be made.