Investigation of personal thermal comfort in office building by implementation of smart bracelet: A case study

Abstract

Thermal comfort is significant factor in the overall satisfaction level and affects directly the building energy performance within heating and cooling systems. Through this work, the short-term field investigation of smart monitoring devices was applied for personal thermal comfort investigation. The conceptual approach was presented for the case of specific office building. The low cost sensing technology was implemented in this investigation as key advantage of herein considered approach. The users wore smart bracelets which monitored physiological parameters, i.e. skin wrist temperature and heart rate during the day in office facility. Simultaneously, the environmental parameters were measured (air temperature, relative air humidity and CO2 concentration). Field survey (subjective response from occupants) was conducted as well. Wrist skin temperature from the individual users has a positive correlation with thermal comfort evaluation for female (0.54) and male (0.36) user. Additionally, for the data from male user, the CO2 concentration in the office had a positive correlation as well (0.45). The positive correlation between examined parameters endorse the application of the proposed measuring technology (wearable device) for detection of personal thermal comfort. The proposed approach represents a basis for further development of novel regulation approach for heating/cooling systems in buildings, since it allows more complex evaluation of the personal thermal comfort factors.