A novel method for thermostat set point prediction for energy savings and/or better human thermal comfort - A zonal modelling approach

Very often the set point temperature is selected to satisfy comfort requirements and/or to save energy consumption in buildings. However, the thermostat location is usually outside the occupied space and located on the wall near a front door or in a hallway that is subject to warm and cold draughts. A discrepancy exists between the temperature at the thermostat location and the occupied zones. A zonal model has been developed and evaluated using a CFD computer program, to predict thermostat set points for energy savings and/or better human thermal comfort. Two control strategies, temperature set point and Predicted Percent Dissatisfied (PPD) set point, along with three different schemes (i.e., considering a uniform temperature distribution "Uniform-zones", using the zones of the core of the building "Core-zones", and using all the zones of the occupied space "Occupied-zones"), have been investigated through four case studies in which several construction types of a one-zone building have been considered, in order to determine the thermostat set points, heating energy demands, and thermal comfort indices (Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and/or PPD).