ASHRAE Standard 55-92 defines thermal comfort conditions for several applications; however, there is no information about thermal comfort delivery calculations or sizing for high temperature radiant heater applications. The use of high temperature radiant heaters is becoming common, yet practical sizing and performance calculation tools are not available to the designer. Such information is essential to meeting governmental guidelines and standards as well as to provide information to meet building and design performance contracts.

The objective of this research project is to develop a simplified methodology to effectively model the thermal comfort delivered by high temperature radiant heaters. The methodology will be capable of calculating the mean radiant and operative temperature fields throughout a room as a functional space, include the effects of room geometry, outdoor temperature conditions, and the size and location of radiative and convective heating systems. The radiant heat transfer calculations will build on the methodology developed in 657-RP or an equally accurate new methodology.