Humans-In-The-Building: Enhancing Energy Efficiency and Comfort through Occupant-Centered Modeling

The recent advent of Building Automation Systems (BASs) has deeply highlighted the concept of thermal comfort and energy efficiency in modern buildings. However, while consumption optimization represents a crucial objective, it is important to consider user well-being in indoor environments. The concept of "Humans-in-the-buildings" focuses on an approach in which occupant feedback becomes a priority variable in the decision-making processes of temperature control systems. This thesis investigates the integration between automation strategies, user-centered control models and occupant behavior analysis in order to make a dynamic control based on energy savings and user comfort. A comparison between traditional control approaches is presented to evaluate the effectiveness. In the end, practical results are assessed through simulations in Matlab/Simulink and IDA ICE, a state-of-the-art building performance simulation tool.