Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and energy performance evaluation of PECS

Most current environmental control systems installed in buildings aim to create a uniform IEQ, disregarding the large interpersonal and intrapersonal variability in occupants’ thermal, visual, acoustics & air quality requirements. By creating occupant micro-environments that respond to individual preferences, and relaxing the surrounding space, personalized environmental control systems (PECS) can satisfy all occupants with relatively low-energy input. The performance of PECS on improving IEQ and energy use has been widely studied in different spaces using different simulation and modeling techniques, experimental methods, and field studies. Key performance indicators (KPIs) were subsequently used to quantify this performance and benchmark it with respect to conventional systems.