Real-time estimation of thermal comfort indices in an office building with a solar powered HVAC system

Abstract

This paper presents an interactive software tool to monitor in real-time thermal comfort in buildings. Specifically, the tool is used to estimate predicted mean vote (PMV) and predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) indices, which are widely accepted in the framework of thermal comfort and recognized by international standards. In this work, the tool was tested in an office building with an HVAC system based on solar energy. To perform this task, a network architecture that enables communication between different protocols is proposed, with a TCP/IP-Modbus gateway and a web server as the main elements, providing in this way external connectivity and data collection from different sensors. The tool communicates remotely with the renewable system and proposes corrective control indications to maintain the indoor-air conditions inside the optimal comfort range.