Energy Savings in Residential Buildings Based on Adaptive Thermal Comfort Models

Abstract

The residential Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems nowadays aim to provide tailored solutions, focused on the home occupants’ thermal comfort. In that sense, these systems must support the well-being and productiveness throughout the day and the working hours, without compromising the system energetic sustainability.Relying on user data collected from households in Europe, this work aims to assist residents with optimal behaviours, having in mind the energy efficiency of the system. It seeks a retrofittable solution capable of relying on the limited spectrum of data that these systems are collecting today. To do so, it explores the adaptive comfort theory for residential homes to achieve optimized setpoints without compromising the occupants’ thermal needs.KeywordsSmart homeSmart thermostatEnergy savingsIndoor thermal comfort patternsAdaptive thermal models