Intuitive Thermal Comfort Controller

Guaranteeing an optimal level of thermal comfort can increase productivity and quality of life. ‘THERCOM’ project will facilitate the development of a new paradigm in indoor climate control to ensure optimal thermal comfort. The control development will focus on three characteristics: improving user experience, increasing energy efficiency and consistency with the technological revolution.

‘THERCOM’ will offer an innovative user experience by implementing intuitive interaction between the occupant and the controller. The controller will apply thermal comfort theory and, based on the European and UK standards, bring an improvement to the user experience. ‘THERCOM’ will be the first controller to directly relate to the user experience and the environment, providing consumers with a unique control. The controller will optimize the expediency of most of the room users: no other controller in the marker is able to adjust the setpoints to optimize the general thermal comfort level of the room.

Increasing energy efficiency is one of the principal objectives of our society to decrease the negative impacts on the environment. ‘THERCOM’ will generate the opportunity to increase thermal comfort and optimise energy consumption. Internet of Things offers for the first time in human history the opportunity to provide ‘intelligence’ to objects. The new technologies try to improve the human quality of life, and thermal comfort is one area with immense potential to apply ‘smart’ controllers. Using the theoretical knowledge of thermal comfort, empirical data, international standards, and innovative hardware, ‘THERCOM’ project seeks to create a new paradigm in the indoor climate controller world, based on people, and adapting to personal prophecies, the human being has to be the focus of the advances that seek to reach net zero because it is the humans who consume the energy.

Motivated people are the most powerful force in the world. ‘THERCOM’ is able to motivate people to reduce their energy consumption through competition, rewards, feedback, and other gamification concepts, utilising all the power of motivated people. With this in mind, the possible positive impacts of this project are immense.

Coronavirus disease 2019

COVID-19 is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever,[7] fatigue, cough, breathing difficulties, loss of smell, and loss of taste.[8][9][10] Symptoms may begin one to fourteen days after exposure to the virus. At least a third of people who are infected do not develop noticeable symptoms.[11][12] Of those who develop symptoms noticeable enough to be classified as patients, most (81%) develop mild to moderate symptoms (up to mild pneumonia), while 14% develop severe symptoms (dyspnea, hypoxia, or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging), and 5% develop critical symptoms (respiratory failure, shock, or multiorgan dysfunction).[13] Older people have a higher risk of developing severe symptoms. Some complications result in death. Some people continue to experience a range of effects (long COVID) for months or years after infection, and damage to organs has been observed.[14] Multi-year studies on the long-term effects are ongoing.[15]

COVID‑19 transmission occurs when infectious particles are breathed in or come into contact with the eyes, nose, or mouth. The risk is highest when people are in close proximity, but small airborne particles containing the virus can remain suspended in the air and travel over longer distances, particularly indoors. Transmission can also occur when people touch their eyes, nose, or mouth after touching surfaces or objects that have been contaminated by the virus. People remain contagious for up to 20 days and can spread the virus even if they do not develop symptoms.[16]

Testing methods for COVID-19 to detect the virus’s nucleic acid include real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‑PCR),[17][18] transcription-mediated amplification,[17][18][19] and reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT‑LAMP)[17][18] from a nasopharyngeal swab.[20]

Several COVID-19 vaccines have been approved and distributed in various countries, many of which have initiated mass vaccination campaigns. Other preventive measures include physical or social distancing, quarantining, ventilation of indoor spaces, use of face masks or coverings in public, covering coughs and sneezes, hand washing, and keeping unwashed hands away from the face. While drugs have been developed to inhibit the virus, the primary treatment is still symptomatic, managing the disease through supportive care, isolation, and experimental measures.

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