Application of wearable sensory devices in predicting occupant's thermal comfort in office buildings during the cooling season

Abstract

The mitigation of adverse health consequences, improvement of life quality and the work environment with consequential benefits to wellness and performance of the occupants, arise the need for innovations in predicting thermal comfort in the actual time during which a requirement occurs. Late researches in this field largely neglect user engagement in building energy performance. In this paper, the wearable sensory devices are deployed to provide real-time information in a spatially distributed indoor environment during the cooling season in office buildings. The results imply that wearable devices are an efficient tool for collecting individualized human sensation data such as a precise metabolic equivalent of task (MET) and occupant's activity level which could generate total energy expenditure of an occupant. In addition to sensor data, documenting indoor environmental conditions such as air temperature, relative humidity and a level of carbon dioxide (CO2), could be utilized as useful inputs that complete the more sensibly provided feedback of occupants' work environmental surroundings. Furthermore, this could provide a potentially significant opportunity for achieving a personal indoor environment that is most preferred.