Thermal Comfort Management of a Single Office Room via Air Flow Controls

Abstract

This paper presents an intelligent air-flow controller for Air-Conditioning (AC) system in a single office room environment. The prototype is capable to adjust the split unit AC system air-flow under dynamic temperature variations caused by the occupant’s movement, thus, maintaining an optimal comfort level for a room. In this study, two ultrasonic sensors installed in a typical 1 hp split unit AC system that senses the occupant movement inside the room. Based on the occupant’s movement, a microcontroller will adjust the fin (air-flow) accordingly via an installed two units of servo motor. The primary goals of the prototype are to reduce the electricity consumption of the AC system while maintaining an optimal comfort level of the occupant. The system performance successfully evaluated through autonomous air-flow control of an AC indoor unit fin adjustments in a single occupant movement scenario.