A Novel Method for Monitoring Air Speed in Offices Using Low Cost Sensors

Even though HVAC systems consume around 40% of total building energy, they often fail to provide satisfactory thermal conditions to occupants in commercial buildings. Personalized environmental control systems (PECS) such as local fans and heaters have the potential to control the local environment around the occupant to improve occupant satisfaction. Existing methods for modeling thermal preferences primarily rely on temperature measurements and often neglect air speed. Current methods for monitoring air speeds are either too expensive or too bulky to be used in real office environments. We present our preliminary results on predicting air speeds using alternate environmental parameters such as air pressure, temperature, and humidity using low cost miniature sensors. The results show that we can accurately predict air speeds with a mean absolute error of 0.056 m/s for conditions investigated in this study. Although the results are promising, further studies are needed to improve the system before it can be used in real world environments.