Locating air-conditioners and furniture inside residential flats to obtain good thermal comfort

Majority of residential apartments in Hong Kong may be equipped with up to three window-type air-conditioners that operate. during 7 months of hot and humid weather. The units are placed in the living rooms and bedrooms. The positions of these units and furniture inside these small rooms are directed in some extent by the architectural design, however, residents have possibility to decide about their actual position. The occupants should locate their air-conditioner with respect to the room furniture to avoid the cold air re-circulation and draft, and to obtain good thermal comfort for residents. To accomplish this, flat manufacturers should give some recommendations to the occupants, and architects should include such concerns in their design. For three positions of an air-conditioner unit and one position of a bed and a cupboard in a typical Hong Kong residential bedroom, the air velocities, temperatures, and air diffusion performance index are determined by using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FLOVENT. The cases with the maximum benefit and maximum consequences in terms of thermal comfort in the bedroom are identified. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.