Search

A fine-grained regulation of the HVAC emitters, capable of providing heat and cool only where effectively needed, can lead to a significant energy saving. This paper presents the results from an experimental test of an energy-efficient sub-zonal heating management system, based on an innovative comfort sensor. The objective is to demonstrate how the real-time PMV (Predicted Mean Vote) measurement of different positions in a room can be used to apply optimal rules for the climate control. The case study is an office, located in Central Italy, equipped with two separately controllable electrical heaters. The heating system has been coupled with a low-cost, IR-based comfort sensor, named Comfort Eye, to regulate the heating output of each heater in function of the local comfort conditions. A PID (Proportional–integral–derivative) controller, tuned by fuzzy logic, uses the PMV measured in the respective sub-zone as controlled variable, regulates the power of each heater. The system ran for one winter day and results have been compared with a reference condition, representative of the typical ON/OFF control of the room. The reference condition has been created with the same heating system, but without the sub-zonal division. The comparison, considering the specific application presented, turned out that the sub-zonal control system could achieve an energy saving up to 17% with respect to the typical ON/OFF control with a slight improvement of thermal comfort, reduced deviation from the neutral condition (PMV = 0). This shows that the possibility of measuring comfort distributions is crucial to achieve optimal environmental control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study for the development of a monitoring methodology that includes thermal comfort in a smart metering system for sports facilities is presented. The scope of this system is to obtain meaningful information on how energy is used in relation to the level of comfort perceived, so as to allow fully informed management operations. The main problem to be addressed is the accurate quantitative measurement of the thermal comfort inside indoor sports areas (e.g. swimming pools, fitness rooms, etc.), which in this work is estimated through the PMV (Predicted Mean Vote) index. The paper describes what needs to be dynamically measured, which parameters are required, which critical uncertainty factors may arise and how to estimate the indicators. A sensitivity and uncertainty analysis for the PMV measurement in this specific application is performed to develop a simplified approach. The results obtained from the measurement campaigns made in two different sports areas are presented to validate the approach. Finally, a simulation of swimming pool data is used to preliminarily demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the global monitoring system proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A measurement system based on infrared (IR) thermovision technique (ITT) is developed for real-time estimation of room thermal variations and comfort conditions in office-type environment as a part of a feasibility study in the EU FP7 project 'INTUBE'. An IR camera installed on the ceiling allows thermal image acquisition and post-processing is performed to derive mean surface temperatures, number of occupants and presence of other heat sources (e.g. computer) through detecting algorithms. A lumped parameter model of the room, developed in the Matlab/Simulink environment, receives as input the information extracted from image processing to compute room exchanged heat rate, air temperature and thermal comfort (PMV). The aim is to provide in real time the room thermal balance and comfort information for energy-saving purposes in an improved way with respect to traditional thermostats. Instantaneous information can be displayed for the users or eventually used for automatic HVAC control. The system is based on custom adaptation of a surveillance low-cost IR system with dedicated radiometric calibration. Experimental results show average absolute discrepancies in the order of 0.4 &degree;C between calculated and measured air temperature during a time period of a day. A sensitivity analysis is performed in order to identify main uncertainty sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A low-cost infrared measurement system has been developed to monitor in real time thermal comfort conditions in indoor environments. The device employs a scanning linear array of thermopiles installed on the ceiling of the room and is assessed and controlled by an embedded microcontroller to measure indoor surface temperatures. This feature allows the evaluation of the mean radiant temperature (Tr), in compliance with ISO 7726, for several positions inside the space. Together with Tr, the variables required by ISO 7730 are measured to calculate the predicted mean vote (PMV). The PMV and Tr are provided as real-time outputs of the device through a wireless or wired connection, also as distribution maps. The paper reports a detailed description of the system, its calibration and uncertainty analysis. The capability of predicting thermal comfort conditions for multiple positions in the room has been tested and validated in a real case study with respect to a reference measurement system (microclimate station). Comparison showed a deviation of ±0.5 °C for Tr and ±0.1 for PMV without direct solar radiation and an average deviation of ±2.0 °C for Tr and ±0.2 for PMV with direct solar radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]