Occupant Feedback and Control Behavior with a Newly Developed Personalized Environmental Control System (PECS)

Abstract

Personalized Environmental Control Systems (PECS) allow control over indoor environmental quality (IEQ) parameters of the microclimate around individual occupants. The present study reports on the results of human subject experiments evaluating a prototype of PECS. The tested prototype had heating, cooling, and ventilation (air circulation through a filter and an ultraviolet germicidal irradiation component) functions. The objective of the present experiment was to obtain the occupants' subjective responses and physiological parameters such as skin temperature, with and without the use of PECS. The occupants' interaction with the PECS prototype was also observed. Experiments were conducted with 24 university students (12 male and 12 female subjects) over a 5-week period between February and March 2022. Different ambient temperature settings between 18 and 28 °C were tested each week. In each week, subjects participated in two 3-hour sessions, once with PECS and once without it. Subjects with PECS were able to adjust the PECS functions freely throughout the measurements, and the changes they made were recorded in an internal log of the PECS. Subjective responses such as thermal sensation and acceptability were compared with their PECS operation to evaluate the effect of PECS, together with each occupant’s interaction with PECS.