Thermal comfort and energy analysis in ceramic tiles

Ceramic tiles are frequently used as coating elements in buildings. Despite its superior properties, ceramic tile is felt as a cold surface when touched. In this thesis, thermal touch comfort of ceramic tiles is examined. For this purpose, energy analysis is performed for heat transfer during the touch. Surface temperature during touching is calculated with this analysis. How thermal inertia contributes to the surface temperature is explained. In order to examine touch comfort, the interaction of human body with temperature is investigated. The structure of human skin and the mechanism of sensing warmth are shown. The basic conditions of thermal comfort are examined and critical temperatures for the human body are shown. It has been evaluated that the ceramic tile can be coated with an ionomer material to improve thermal touch comfort. Accordingly, 9 mm thick ceramic tile was coated with Surlyn® 1706 material with 0,25 mm thickness. Thus, thermal inertia of ceramic tile is reduced by 4 %. The surface temperature during touching of coated ceramic tile is calculated and thus the increase in thermal comfort is investigated. Hence, thermal comfort of this building element is evaluated. Furtherly, a basic study is suggested in order to calculate thermal comfort of other building elements except for ceramic tiles.