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From occupants to occupants: A review of the occupant information understanding for building HVAC occupant-centric control
Journal article   Open access

From occupants to occupants: A review of the occupant information understanding for building HVAC occupant-centric control

Tao Yang, Arkasama Bandyopadhyay, Zheng O'Neill, Jin Wen and Bing Dong
Building simulation, v 15(6), pp 913-932
07 Dec 2021
PMID: 34904052
url
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-021-0861-0View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Maybe Open Access (Publisher Bronze) Open

Abstract

Construction & Building Technology Physical Sciences Science & Technology Technology Thermodynamics
Occupants are the core of the built environment. Traditional heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems operate with predefined schedules and maximum occupancy assumptions with no consideration of specific occupant information. These generalized assumptions usually do not align with the actual demand and result in over-conditioning and occupant discomfort. In recent years, with the aid of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) and Computer Science (CS), it is possible to acquire real-time and accurate occupant information to satisfy the exact thermal requirement through specific HVAC control in one particular built environment. This mechanism is called HVAC "Occupant-centric Control (OCC)." HVAC OCC strategy starts with collecting the occupant's information (e.g., presence/absence) and then applies it to meet the occupant's requirement (e.g., thermal comfort). However, even though some research studies and field pilot demonstrations have been devoted to the field of OCC, there is a lack of systematic knowledge about occupant data, which is the principal component of OCC for HVAC researchers and practitioners. To fill this gap, this review paper discusses OCC with a particular emphasis on occupant information and investigates how this information can assist HVAC operation in providing an acceptable built environment in required spaces during the required time. We provide a fine-grained, comprehensive picture of occupant information, discuss its features, the modalities of information feed-in into the HVAC control, and the application of commonly utilized occupant information for OCC.

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49 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
#13 Climate Action
#7 Affordable and Clean Energy

InCites Highlights

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Construction & Building Technology
Thermodynamics
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