Overview
Previous studies have shown that 'personalised environmental control systems' (PECS) improve occupants’ satisfaction with the indoor environment substantially. However, most of those studies were carried out under controlled conditions and long-term performance studies from real buildings are lacking. There is also a gap in the knowledge and tools necessary to make these systems widely-applicable in buildings. Based on this need, the objective of this project is to establish design criteria and operation guidelines for PECS and to quantify the benefits regarding health, comfort and energy performance. This includes also control concepts and guidelines for operating PECS in spaces with general ambient systems for heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting. The scope of the project includes all types of PECS for local heating, cooling, ventilation, air cleaning, lighting, and acoustics. It includes desktop systems, which are mounted on desks, or integrated into furniture, chairs with heating / cooling and ventilation, and other types that can be found during the study. It also includes wearables, where heating, cooling, and ventilation are included in garments or devices attached to an occupant's body.
The main deliverables from the project are expected to be as follows:
- Guidebook on requirements for PECS
- State-of-the-art report on PECS
- Guidebook on PECS design, operation and implementation in buildings (including integration of PECS with ambient conditioning systems)
- Report on test methods for performance evaluation of PECS
- Universal criteria about requirements, characteristics, and performance of PECS to be used in national and international standards
The target audiences for these deliverables are manufacturers (who need design guidelines), building owners and consultants (who need information on performance, advantages, problems, operation, how PECS is operated together with other building systems), users (need same information as building owners and for home workplaces), and standardisation bodies (for the revision of standards for indoor environmental quality).