SPOT: A Smart Personalized Office Thermal Control System

Abstract

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) accounts for about half of the energy consumption in buildings. HVAC energy consumption can be reduced by changing the indoor air temperature setpoint, but changing the setpoint too aggressively can overly reduce user comfort. We have therefore designed and implemented SPOT: a Smart Per- sonalized O ce Thermal control system that balances energy conservation with personal thermal comfort in an o ce environment. SPOT relies on a new model for personal ther- mal comfort that we call the Predicted Personal Vote model. This model quantitatively predicts human comfort based on a set of underlying measurable environmental and per- sonal parameters. SPOT uses a set of sensors, including a Microsoft Kinect, to measure the parameters underlying the PPV model, then controls heating and cooling elements to dynamically adjust indoor temperature to maintain comfort. Based on a deployment of SPOT in a real o ce environment, we nd that SPOT can accurately maintain per- sonal comfort despite environmental uctuations and allows a worker to balance personal comfort with energy use.