Personal building controls

Buildings are some of the largest energy consumers in the world and yet occupants are regularly dissatisfied with the interior environment in large part due to thermal discomfort [7]. Studies show that given personal control over their environment, occupants are comfortable in a much larger range of ambient temperatures [2]. We present a personalized control smartphone application designed with the dual goals of increasing occupant comfort and achieving building-wide energy savings. The application allows occupants to directly control the lighting and heating/cooling in their vicinity. Using wireless localization combined with data from existing sensors in the building, we estimate room occupancy and use this to dynamically adjust ventilation and air conditioning to save energy in the building.