Impact of Occupancy Counters on HVAC Systems

Abstract: To improve future Heating Ventilation and AirConditioning (HVAC) systems’ energy efficiency, a reliable wayto determine occupancy is needed. The answer lies within theoccupancy counters. In this project the goal was to study whichsensor would be most suited for detecting occupants, and proposea new application of a combination of occupancy counters andestimator that would be the most suited for determining thenumber of occupancy. The project will cover a literature studyof hardware-based occupancy counters and a software-basedoccupancy estimator, compare their strengths and weaknesses,and several simulations that handle temperature changes andcarbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. This is to demonstrate andreflect how occupancy affect these levels in an office environment.The results of this work shows that it is possible to improve theenergy efficiency of the HVAC system when using occupancycounters, and the impact of occupancy differ depending on whatis regulated.