Detection of comfortable temperature based on thermal events detection indoors

Abstract

This work focussed on thermal comfort as the basis to control indoor conditions. Its objective is a method to determine thermal preferences of office occupants. The method is based on detection of thermal events. They occur when indoor conditions are under control of occupants. Thermal events are associated with the use of local heating/cooling sources which have user-adjustable settings. The detection is based on Fourier analysis of indoor temperature time series. The relevant data is collected by temperature sensor. We achieved thermal events recognition rate of 86 %. Conditions when indoor conditions were beyond control were detected with 95.6 % success rate. Using experimental data it was demonstrated that the method allows to reproduce key elements of temperature statistics associated with conditions when occupants are in control of thermal comfort.