HVAC control system as a home energy management system function to prevent heat shock in households

Abstract

This paper proposes a new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) control system that acts as a home energy-management system (HEMS) function to prevent heat shock. Heat shock, which causes serious problems such as heart disease and cerebral infarction, occurs when people experience sudden temperature changes on moving from one room to another. The phenomenon occurs because of global warming, and its occurrences have increased in recent years. The HVAC control system plays an important role in preventing heat shocks in houses. The HEMS ensures complete comfort by managing electricity conservation, home security, and healthcare. The system emphasizes preventing heat shocks due to exposure to temperature difference when people move between rooms. The proposed HVAC system performs three functions: (1) sensing the data of an indoor room to detect the temperature difference, (2) air-conditioning control to prevent heat shock, and (3) providing time scheduling to the users as a web application. This study evaluated the system when a person moves from the bedroom to the living room after waking up because older people expose themselves to risk in such situations. The system was installed in two households for twelve days to test its applicability. The first six days were spent on base data acquisition, and the remaining days were used for an ABAB test, in which the system was not used during period A and then used during period B in order to obtain data for comparison. The temperatures of the two rooms were maintained constant to obtain quantitative data for the evaluation, and participants were asked to answer a questionnaire to obtain qualitative data. The results showed that the temperature difference between two rooms was maintained successfully, and the satisfaction rate of the participants with the system was 91.5% compared to that without the proposed system.