Wireless sensors for distributed monitoring of energy-efficient smart buildings

Nowadays, building performance are mainly focused on energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality because (i) buildings are responsible of about 40% of the energy consumption at European level, and (ii) people spend more and more time in indoor places, whose comfort has strong influence on health, behavior, and working efficiency. This paper proposes an innovative strategy for the estimation and forecasting of indoor thermal comfort starting from distributed environmental measurement acquired by wireless sensor networks. The estimations represent a valuable indicator for optimal management of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), aimed at providing user comfort as well as energy saving. The proposed solution has been experimentally verified with real measurement acquired within university building, and the results have pointed out that standard air management can be improved in favor of thermal comfort and energy efficiency, and that high scalability and flexibility of the system facilitate the installation also in old buildings where any advanced management exists.