ThermoNet: Fine-Grain Assessment of Building Comfort and Efficiency

Understanding the performance of the Heating,Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system in largebuildings is a prerequisite for optimizing their energy effincy. Fine grain performance analysis has not, to our knowledge, received adequate attention thusfar.To address this issue weevaluate the thermal comfort and the energyefficiencyof a relatively modernHVACsystemina largebuilding based onbuilding-wide high-fidelity environmental data collected via a wireless sensor network over 12 months. Access to fine grain information reveals temporal and spatial dynamics that help quantify thelevelof (non-)compliance with the system's control objective and thebuilding's thermal comfort standards. The paper moreover describes ThermoNet, our hybrid wireless sensor network for monitoring a legacy building,which usesdutycyclingandadaptivepower controltoachievehighdatayieldwithlowpower consumption.