Heat: Ways the Human Body Gains or Loses Heat to its Environment

Heat 1
ASSIGNMENT 2 – HEAT
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Heat 2
With diagrams describe the ways that the human body gains or loses heat to its
environment. Explain how these mechanisms work.
Living beings’ bodies always produce heat through metabolic processes. Heat output is 100W
but can reduce to 70W when one is asleep and rise to 700W when working. The heat should
always emit the heat out to avoid death. The body’s thermal-regulation is very useful (Houdas &
Ring, 2013).
E – Evaporation
Rd – radiation
Cd – Condensation
Cv - Convection
The human body gains or losses heat through the above named processes.
Heat loss through evaporation
During hot weather conditions, the cells of the skin push water to the skin surface so that the
body heat can evaporate it thus cooling it.
Heat Gain or loss through Conduction
When the body comes into contact with a warm object it takes in the energy and when one
touches a cold object heat moves from the body to the object (Gusheh & Lassen, 2017).
Heat lost through Radiation
Transfer of heat happens via electromagnet waves.
Heat lost through Convection.
There is always layer of warm air around our bodies and wearing warm clothes normally traps it.
Exposure to wind will blow away the warm layer thus leaving the body with cold layer making

Heat 3
the body loose heat (Gusheh & Lassen, 2017). A human body must either loose or gain heat to
achieve the required level of human comfort.
2. For an uninsulated brick veneer house in Sydney in winter describe the main paths of
heat loss to the outside air
Just like human beings, buildings loose heat to the surrounding and also gain from it. Heat will
mostly be lost through; the ceiling, walls, glazing, floor and through ventilation holes. The
uninsulated brick house in Sydney will lose about 35% through walls, 25% through the roof and
40% through windows, ventilation holes and the floor (Houdas & Ring, 2013).
Heat loss due to Surface to Volume ratio
A big building has a small surface to volume ratio hence likely to lose a lot of heat whereas a
smaller building would behave oppositely due to a higher ratio.
Heat loss through Windows
Windows easily lose heat due to them having a low thermal mass. To minimize such losses the
window area should be minimized. If large windows are necessary then they should be double
glazed with low e-treatment and have partly evacuated with inert gas fill.
Heat loss through Walls
This will happen due to the lack of insulation. Insulation can be enhanced by putting cavities
between studs of the wall frame making part of the brick veneer (Law & Dewsbury, 2018). An
air gap should also be in between the sheathing and brick veneer to ensure insulation.