Mainstreaming Personal Comfort Systems
Can the construction and property industries implement innovative practices and technologies to improve building performance and thermal comfort?
This series of perspectives considers personal comfort systems: decentralized building thermal control, in which occupants control their local environments with personal devices while the amount of central space conditioning (HVAC) is scaled back.
Personal Comfort Systems have been shown to improve thermal satisfaction and reduce energy demand. So why hasn't it been implemented? What are the barriers preventing its adoption? What can be done to overcome this?
In the context of the climate and energy crises, clothing can reduce the energy demand associated with thermal comfort.
How can this low-energy approach to personal thermal comfort be implemented?
The IOT can coordinate PCS & HVAC systems to improve energy efficiency.
Part of a a new series on Personal Comfort Systems: How barriers to this promising approach can be overcome.
First in a new series examining how barriers to this promising approach can be overcome.
Latest Commentaries
Time to Question Demolition!
André Thomsen (Delft University of Technology) comments on the recent Buildings & Cities special issue ‘Understanding Demolition’ and explains why this phenomenon is only beginning to be understood more fully as a social and behavioural set of issues. Do we need an epidemiology of different demolition rates?
Where are Women of Colour in Urban Planning?
Safaa Charafi asks: is it possible to decolonialise the planning profession to create more inclusive and egalitarian urban settings? It is widely accepted that cities are built by men for other men. This male domination in urban planning results in cities that often do not adequately address challenges encountered by women or ethnic and social minorities. Although efforts are being taken to include women in urban planning, women of colour are still under-represented in many countries, resulting in cities that often overlook their needs.