Effects of personal heating on thermal comfort: A review

Personal conditioning system (PCS) is receiving considerable attention due to its energy-saving potential and the ability to satisfy individual comfort requirements. As a part of PCS, personal heating systems can maintain human thermal comfort in cold environments, which leads to their potential role of important heating mode in cold winter, especially in the Hot Summer and Cold Winter regions of China. In order to better promote the development and application of personal heating systems, this paper reviews the published studies. Personal heating systems can be divided into four types based on the mode of heat transfer: conductive, convective, radiative and combinative type. Characteristics of each category and respective devices are introduced. Furthermore, identifying the effects of personal heating on thermal comfort and the models for predicting or evaluating thermal comfort during local heating. This paper would provide users with a guideline for choosing suitable heating equipment during winter.