In many houses the heating solution often provides poor thermal comfort and inefficient use of energy. The current market proposes smart thermostats and thermostatic radiator valves as cheap and relatively easy-to-install retrofit solution. These systems provide increased freedom of installation, due to the use of wireless communication, however, the uncertainty of the measured air temperature, considering the thermostat placement, could impact the final heating performance.
Thermal comfort is the condition of mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment and is assessed by subjective evaluation. Due to low activity and a decrease in metabolic rate, the control of body temperature decreases and the elderly generally need warmer environments. The elderly, for example, prefer 2xC higher ambient temperatures and are more sensitive to thermal conditions than young adults.The aging of the global population leads to an increase in home heat consumption.
Controlling temperature and humidity our application can optimise the gas/electricity consumption for a house or a building flat.
Using a Salus IT500 or IT300 thermostat the system can preserve the same thermal comfort with minimum gas/electricity consumption. Our humidity/temperature sensors and Salus temperature sensors provide data to analyse the thermal comfort of the house.
Looking on the above graphic generate by our application for the month October, we see two parts. The left one when the heat is off and the inside house temperature is decreasing under 20 degree and the right one where the heat is on and the house inside house temperature is preserved between 21.5 and 22 degree celsius. In this case the Consumption of gas graphic shows how the system is optimised year after year.
The thermostat switch (in this case Salus iT500) can be monitored as the next graphic shows.
The system has 4 levels of thermal comfort : comfortable, some discomfort, great discomfort and dangerous.
All sensors of our platform are wifi connected. They are connected on the AP of the local client network. But they comunicate over the network data in secure. Clients can manage the sensors in the home. More sensors in home, more accuracy in thermal comfort computation.
Using the data of our platform the user can analyse the heating efficiency of the house/apartment. Based on this analysis the heating efficiency can be increased with low energy consumption (gas/electricity).
In summary our platform system aims to improve comfort and energy efficiency using smart thermostats, smart sensors and data analysis. It addresses the specific needs to decrease the consumption of energy, accurate sensor placement for optimal performance and increasing the comfort of the house habitants. (http://termic.avantaro.ro)