Thermo-hygrometric comfort in hospital rooms conditioned by means of a primary air system and ceiling radiant panels

In this work the first results of experimental research are described, which began in the 2006 summer season and is still underway, on the performance of a primary air system integrated with radiant ceiling panels that runs in the hospital rooms in the maternity ward of the Maggiore Hospital of Bologna. The choice of this kind of environment is based the fact that there is more and more attention toward literature on comfort standards that must be guaranteed in the hospital environment, due to the presence of typically weak users, both from the clinical and psychological point of view. The performance of the air conditioning system is taken into account in relation to the conditions of comfort the patients feel, provided that the validity of the results is also extendible to environments with different purposes of use, both for civil and industrial applications. The experimental activity was conducted with the use of temperature micro-recorders installed on all the bordering surfaces of the sample environment; the positioning of the sensors was defined via thermo-graphic surveys. Always via the use of temperature and relative humidity micro-recorders, thermo-hygrometric values of the environment and of the primary air were monitored as well. The values of the thermal power given by the panels were calculated with an ultrasound appliance to record the capacities of the thermal carrier fluid.