Towards an open monitoring platform for improving energy efficiency and thermal comfort in public buildings

Considerable energy savings can be achieved through intelligent buildings that monitor the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems that contribute a large proportion of energy consumption, particularly in extremely hot or cold climates. While intelligent building research focusses on automatically controlling such systems to maximise efficiency, there is a need for user input due to the personal, cultural and changeable nature of thermal comfort. As an alternative to automation, this paper proposes a monitoring platform that empowers users to make intelligent decisions about energy efficiency. The platform is designed to gather temperature, humidity, power and occupancy information about a room and to provide services that use the data for energy saving and comfort maximising purposes. After deploying the platform, the analysis of data collected in a lecture room highlights areas that significant energy savings could be achieved. Finally, applications of the platform are described that support manual energy saving measures.