## 3 Testing the Manikin Prototype and Results
### Measuring the Equivalent Temperature  
As mentioned previously, the equivalent temperature is a quantitative assessment of the conditions for physical heat balance. Thus, to determine the equivalent temperature, it is necessary to measure the total heat flux of one or more zones, each of which have a specific surface temperature of a constant value. The set point of this value is chosen to be similar to the typical values of various human body zones. An indication of the convective, radiative, and conductive type heat losses is given by the power consumption. It is important to note that these measurements and control are possible through the LabVIEW software. For each zone, the direct quantity that is measured is the power consumption or heat loss and the surface temperature. Through normalization to an interior climate, the heat loss can be converted to the equivalent temperature. The equivalent temperature of one segment is found through the measurement of the power consumption of the corresponding heated zone, thus constituting an indicator for the local thermal comfort. The electrical energy that is consumed by the thermostatic system is estimated through the generation of a calibration gradient between the PWM duty-cycle and the power calculated as a point by point mean of a single pulse period. The voltage difference on the patch was estimated using the measurements from the oscilloscope. Thus, the voltage difference is obtained at the leads of the whole circuit from which the voltage difference on the transistors must be subtracted. Using a TH5A current transducer, the current through each patch was measured, and this was converted into an equivalent temperature using the relation:  
\[t_{eq}=t_{r\!g}-\frac{P}{S_{r\!g}h_{cal}} \tag{14}\]  
\(t_{eq}\)--equivalent temperature; \(t_{r\!g}\)--the mean temperature of surface portion determined with a sliding mean during a preset period of time; \(S\)--surface portion area of the manikin; \(P\)--mean power consumption determined using a sliding mean during a preset period of time; \(h_{cal}\)--convection coefficient determination using the preceding relationship for constant ambiental temperature (\(t_{eq}\)) of 24 \({}^{\circ}\)C and manikin's surface temperature controlled at 34 \({}^{\circ}\)C [46; 52]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Manikin Name/Body Part** & **[PERSON] [46]** & **[PERSON] [51]** & **[PERSON] (Current Study)** \\ \hline Left foot & 7.08\% & \(-\)15.04\% & 2.96\% \\ \hline Right foot & 2.33\% & \(-\)11.63\% & 10.03\% \\ \hline Left leg & 1.50\% & 2.26\% & 33.02\% \\ \hline Right leg & 1.64\% & 10.75\% & 4.18\% \\ \hline Left thigh & 2.45\% & 15.37\% & 6.96\% \\ \hline Right thigh & 18.56\% & 12.37\% & 19.89\% \\ \hline Pelvic region & 4.38\% & 2.39\% & 7.23\% \\ \hline Head & 14.85\% & 34.50\% & 18.97\% \\ \hline Left hand & 13.72\% & - & 43.5\% \\ \hline Right hand & 20.41\% & - & 28.30\% \\ \hline Left arm & 5.05\% & 11.11\% & 4.15\% \\ \hline Right arm & 5.26\% & 19.03\% & 8.87\% \\ \hline Left upper arm & 3.03\% & 15.15\% & 11.66\% \\ \hline Right upper arm & 14.29\% & 3.57\% & 9.23\% \\ \hline Chest & 41.08\% & 80.50\% & 57.43\% \\ \hline Back & 1.92\% & 22.60\% & 4.67\% \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 6: Radiative heat transfer deviations—manikins from literature and the current prototype. If we compare to the traditional measurement methods through which we can estimate the global PMV, the advantage of the thermal manikin is that it can assess thermal comfort at a local scale and can predict local sensations through the use of the equivalent temperature or through a local PMV that is based on the equivalent temperature instead of the air temperature and the operative temperature [53]. Thermal manikins constitute a powerful assessment tool for the evaluation of the thermal comfort analysis both for lab conditions and for real case studies. Additionally, through the evaluation of the local values of equivalent temperatures for different manikin body parts, local discomfort can be investigated.