Thananchai Leephakpreeda*
The Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 26, no. 1, pp.259-268, 2012

Abstract : Environmental control strategy via computerized implementation is one of the most efficient approaches to integrate new advanced knowledge in research of human thermal comfort to a mechanical air-conditioning unit. Recently, a new conceptual development in designing air-conditioning systems has indicated that the indoor comfort temperature strongly depends upon changes of the outdoor air temperature rather than to be a conventional fixed temperature set-point. The explanation is due to occupants’ adaptability of thermal comfort to a dynamic environment in terms of their clothing and/or activities while the outdoor temperature can be explicitly used as an ultimate indicator of such changes to empirical function of the indoor comfort temperature. In this paper, the first prototype embedded system is developed to emulate such an adaptive algorithm to numerically determine an indoor comfort temperature for a real-time control in an air-conditioning system. From a theoretical point of view, an adaptive comfort model together with grey prediction model is presented for exploring a practical application of a comfort temperature-based control for a single air-conditioned space, so as to show the viability of the proposed methodology by simulated results. The field studies by interview survey of satisfaction on thermal comfort within an air-conditioned reading room of a library confirm the viability of the proposed real-time computerized implementation of adaptive indoor comfort temperature via the embedded system for a conventional air-conditioning unit in practical uses.

Keyword : Adaptive control; Air-conditioning unit; Embedded systems; Indoor comfort temperature