The Office of Sustainability at UT Austin has awarded as a Green Fee grant to improve sustainability on campus. We will apply our research on occupant centered building control to the specific case of lighting control in one of the buildings on the UT campus.
Short project description:
The energy savings of buildings promised by automatic control systems are often ineffective due to occupants who may not use the features of the system to the full potential at best, or deactivate the system at worst. Therefore, systems that adapt to the occupant over time without compromising his/her comfort are needed. In this research, we propose to develop and deploy such an occupant centered control framework in a building on campus focusing on lighting and monitor its effectiveness and usability.