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A.L. Pisello, I. Piglautile, M.S. Andargie, C. Berger, P. Bluyssen, S. Carlucci, G. Chinazzo, Z Deme Belafi, B. Dong, M. Favero, A Ghahramani, G. Havenith, A. Heydarian, D. Kastner, M. Kong, D Licina, Y. Liu, A Luna-Navarro, A. Mahdavi, A Nocente, M. Schweiker, M. Touchie, M. Vellei, F. Vittori, A. Wagner, A. Wang, S. Wei:
"Test rooms to study human comfort in buildings: A review of controlled experiments and facilities";
Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 149 (2021).

Occupants´ comfort perception affects building energy consumptions. To improve the understanding of human
comfort, which is crucial to reduce energy demand, laboratory experiments with humans in controlled environments (test rooms) are fundamental, but their potential also depends on the characteristic of each research
facility. Nowadays, there is no common understanding for definitions, concepts, and procedures related to
human comfort studies performed in test rooms. Identifying common features would allow standardising test
procedures, reproducing the same experiments in different contexts, and sharing knowledge and test possibilities.
This review identifies 187 existing test rooms worldwide: 396 papers were systematically selected, thoroughly
reviewed, and analysed in terms of performed experiments and related test room details. The review highlights a
rising interest in the topic during the last years, since 46% of related papers has been published between 2016
and 2020. A growing interest in non-thermal sensory domains (such as visual and air quality) and multi-domain
studies about occupant´s whole comfort emerged from the results. These research trends have entailed a change
in the way test rooms are designed, equipped and controlled, progressively becoming more realistic inhabitable
environments. Nevertheless, some lacks in comfort investigation are highlighted: some continents (like Africa
and South America) and climate zones are found to be underrepresented, while involved subjects are mainly students performing office tasks. This review aspires to guide scientists and professionals toward the improved
design or the audit of test room experimental facilities, especially in countries and climate zones where human
comfort indoors is under-studied.

no german abstract
Occupants´ comfort perception affects building energy consumptions. To improve the understanding of human
comfort, which is crucial to reduce energy demand, laboratory experiments with humans in controlled environments (test rooms) are fundamental, but their potential also depends on the characteristic of each research
facility. Nowadays, there is no common understanding for definitions, concepts, and procedures related to
human comfort studies performed in test rooms. Identifying common features would allow standardising test
procedures, reproducing the same experiments in different contexts, and sharing knowledge and test possibilities.
This review identifies 187 existing test rooms worldwide: 396 papers were systematically selected, thoroughly
reviewed, and analysed in terms of performed experiments and related test room details. The review highlights a
rising interest in the topic during the last years, since 46% of related papers has been published between 2016
and 2020. A growing interest in non-thermal sensory domains (such as visual and air quality) and multi-domain
studies about occupant´s whole comfort emerged from the results. These research trends have entailed a change
in the way test rooms are designed, equipped and controlled, progressively becoming more realistic inhabitable
environments. Nevertheless, some lacks in comfort investigation are highlighted: some continents (like Africa
and South America) and climate zones are found to be underrepresented, while involved subjects are mainly students performing office tasks. This review aspires to guide scientists and professionals toward the improved
design or the audit of test room experimental facilities, especially in countries and climate zones where human
comfort indoors is under-studied.

Test room Laboratory Climate chamber Human comfort Human-centric experiments Thermal comfort Visual comfort Acoustic comfort Indoor air quality Multi-domain comfort Energy performance Indoor environmental quality

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111359