No abstract

Although there are numerous high performance BMS (Building Management System), which monitor the indoor climate parameters, data access, sensor positioning, and other aspects may not be under control. On the other hand, IoT (Internet of Things) is experiencing exponential growth, as more and more devices and sensors are connected to the cloud. Thus, a sensor monitoring solution for indoor climate parameters was developed. The proposed solution is not expensive, and it is based on a Raspberry Pi board endowed with temperature, humidity, and pressure sensors. The developed application reads the values detected by the sensors, processes the date, and afterwards transmit the information to the IoT ThingSpeak platform. The large area is characteristic of open space offices, so the influence of radiant walls is small, and the operative temperature can be approximate with air temperature. This type of building is conditioned by the air conditioning system, so the air speed in this indoor environment is usually low and could be approximated by the design. So, with the data read by the developed solution the thermal comfort parameters can be approximated. If inadequate values are found, teams that carry out complex and precise measurements could be sent to the site. To achieve this goal a PMV calculator software is developed. Its validity is tested in accordance with the European standard ISO 7730. After that, the PMV computer is used with data read from sensors. Both the data read from the sensors and the newly calculated PMV are sent to the ThingSpeak IoT platform.

The global trend is to increase the thermal comfort in all kinds of buildings, residential and non-residential. At the same time, minimization of energy consumption and improved building sustainability must be achieved. Only precise calculations can keep the balance between maximizing comfort and minimizing energy consumption. The PassivHaus (PH) is a special type of building with low heating energy consumption that fulfills special requirements defined by the Passivhaus Institut of Darmstadt, Germany. The PassivHaus concept has been successfully implemented in climates other than that of Germany. However, current practice in Southern European countries shows that PHs may exhibit overheating in the hot season, a phenomenon which is not very often encountered in Germany. Shading devices may be considered in these southern countries to improve the thermal comfort in PHs during summer. A model of the AMVIC PH office building located near Bucharest, Romania, has been developed using Simergy and EnergyPlus software. The model was validated and calibrated using measured data during summer. Measurements have been used to estimate the classical thermal comfort indices such as predicted mean vote and predicted percent of dissatisfied. Simulations have been performed to study the effect on thermal comfort of several shading devices, such as exterior blinds, exterior shades, and overhangs. Exterior blinds and exterior shades are generally more efficient than overhangs when the results are discussed with reference to transmitted solar energy flux through the windows.