Testing the accuracy of low-cost data streams for determining single-person office occupancy and their use for energy reduction of building services

From National Research Council Canada

Download	View accepted manuscript: Testing the accuracy of low-cost data streams for determining single-person office occupancy and their use for energy reduction of building services (PDF, 1 MB)
DOI	Resolve DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.11.029
Author	Search for: Newsham, Guy R.¹; Search for: Xue, Henry¹; Search for: Arsenault, Chantal¹; Search for: Valdes, Julio J.²; Search for: Burns, Greg J.³; Search for: Scarlett, Elizabeth²; Search for: Kruithof, Steven G.¹; Search for: Shen, Weiming¹
Name affiliation	National Research Council of Canada. Construction National Research Council of Canada. Information and Communication Technologies National Research Council of Canada. Aerospace
Format	Text, Article
Journal title	Energy and Buildings
ISSN	0378-7788 1872-6178
Volume	135
Pages	137–147
Subject	occupancy; sensors; office buildings; lighting; HVAC
Abstract	We explored methods of detecting occupancy in single-person offices using data already collected by the occupant’s PC, or data from relatively cheap sensors added to the PC. We collected data at 15-s intervals for up to 31 days in each of 28 offices. A combination of low/no cost sensors (webcam-based motion detection, and keyboard and mouse activity) was much more accurate at detecting occupancy than a commercial ceiling-based passive infrared (PIR) sensor, and provided overall daytime accuracy >90%, with very low false negative rates. This enhanced detection performance would enable a reduction in the timeout periods for building service curtailment on space vacancy. For example, lighting switch-off timeout could be reduced from the current energy code standard of 20 min to less than 5 min, increasing energy savings potential by 25–45%. We then deployed this system in a proof-of-concept demonstration, using it to control lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), and plug loads in a mock-up office environment. Tests were run over nine occupied days (six in cooling season, three in heating season). The system delivered energy savings of 15–68%, with no reported false negative errors.
Publication date	2016-11-20
Language	English
Peer reviewed	Yes
NPARC number	23001177
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Record identifier	8dd905f5-6b28-4f14-9119-6435285da6a7
Record created	2016-12-22
Record modified	2020-06-04

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Date modified:: 2021-01-27