An Alternative Agent Approach for Managing Thermal Comfort in Office Buildings

Energy consumption and the comfort of occupants are two import issues in office buildings. Various intelligent agent systems and other technologies thus have been proposed to co-ordinate these two issues in office buildings. However, none of these tools are effective. One possible reason is that these tools were developed based on the existing thermal comfort equation, which assumes that all occupants share the same comfortable skin temperature when performing the same activity. This assumption is questionable. In this study, a personalized thermal comfort equation is therefore proposed. Based on the personalized thermal comfort equation, an intelligent thermal comfort agent control system is proposed to optimize energy consumption and occupants comfort in office buildings.