Smart Localized Heating Control System With Human Movement Tracking

Abstract

According to the U.S. energy consumption survey in 2012, about 25% of the commercial and 42% of the residential building energy were used for heating. Despite the development of new and more efficient Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems over the years, the high energy consumption in heating is still one of the major energy efficiency issues. Studies showed that decreasing HVAC operating temperature set points by 4°F will result in energy savings of 15% or more. Thus, the smart localized heating control (SLHC) system was designed and prototyped to provide localized heat directly to a person so that HVAC can run at a lower temperature set point. SLHC detects human movement and delivers the heat based on the result of the target location estimation and temperature measurement feedback. To detect the human movement, image processing techniques were used; image segmentation, mass center detection, background subtraction using the Mixture of Gaussian model, and human feature detection. In SLHC, a near-infrared heater and a tracking function were used to provide an instant and a direct heat to the person in order to minimize wasting energy. The SLHC system is divided into the sensing and processing (SP) and the heating and regulating (HR) subsystem. The SP’s primary function is to process captured video images and measured temperature data. SP also generates and sends the heater operating signal to HR. HR purposes to control the heater’s direction and power based on the signal. The communication between SP and HR was established through Wi-Fi enabled development platform. The SLHC prototype successfully processed the sensing data and transmitted the control signal. The result shows that it detected human movement and estimated the person’s location in 3D space within 10% margin of error. Also, it delivered the focused heat to the surface of the human body and increased the temperature by 10.0°F in 3 minutes at the distance of 1.5m away from the heater. This cost-effective, wireless, and localized heating system demonstrates the potential to improve energy efficiency in buildings.