EAir: An energy efficient air quality management system in residential buildings

Abstract

The ASHRAE standard requires that sufficient fresh air be provided to keep the CO2 level below 1,000 ppm on buildings. However, surveys on buildings, classrooms and houses found CO2 concentrations at or above 1,000 and 2,500 ppm. To reduce CO2 level in buildings, ventilation system exchanges air between indoor and outdoor. Due to the temperature difference, heating or cooling system should also be turned on to keep the stable temperature in the building. In this paper we propose eAir to improve indoor air quality while reducing expense for compensation of heating or cooling. Based on the CO2 level, indoor and outdoor temperature, our design can automatically select the best time to turn on ventilation, heating and cooling systems to keep CO2 and temperature under certain level. In addition, we apply ventilation among rooms to reduce CO2 level for a specific room to avoid turning on heating or cooling system. Our experiments proved that our design can improve the air quality and offer valuable savings to buildings.