BE4050-DRP000758

Faculty: Rajan Rawal

Identification of generic power requirements for Personal Comfort Systems to achieve energy savings compared to ambient conditioning systems

The neoteric developments in HVAC services in the building sector respond to the increasing awareness of energy conservation and occupant comfort. A positive trend is observed in the use of Personal Environmental Comfort Systems (PECS), aiming to increase Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)and Building Energy Savings compared with conventional ambient conditioning systems. Among other IEQ parameters like air quality, visual and acoustic comfort, Thermal Comfort is distinctly pertinent, as it affects the perception of ambient conditions and energy performance. PECS decentralize the space conditioning while offering individual control to the thermal conditioning of a localized space. This allows for relaxation in ambient indoor temperatures, which can be maintained at a relatively under-conditioned state. Thus, with a higher degree of personal thermal comfort, energy savings are achieved.
This DRP aims to identify the generic power requirements for PECS to explore the energy saving potential as compared to ambient conditioning systems. It also intends to identify and develop a framework for future research on energy performance analysis of PECS based on existing literature. A quantitative systematic review by network meta-analysis will be conducted for the eligible literature under set boundary conditions to aggregate, appraise and synthesis all extracted empirical data to achieve a combined result for the power requirements and KPIs for energy performance evaluation of different types of PECS.