Center for the Built Environment

Compressor-based cooling systems have a large impact on energy consumption in modern buildings, particularly in the tropics. Elevated air movement by electric fans is a cost-effective cooling method for both energy saving and thermal comfort improvement. In this paper, a tracking cooling fan using geofence and camera-based indoor localization is proposed. Personal cooling service is provided based on the detection of the occupant in the area bounded by virtual geofences. The proposed camera-based indoor tracking system is able to accurately locate the positions of the occupant, determine the direction of air flow, and calculate the occupant-fan distance. The tracking fan is able to provide the needed air speed determined by PMV-SET thermal comfort model using a calibrated mapping algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed system has been verified through experiments which show that the system is able to operate with low power while improving thermal comfort. The system can be used in an air-conditioned environment with higher temperature setpoint to save energy or in a naturally conditioned environment for thermal comfort enhancement.