Design of a standalone presence aware infrared heating product for office

Abstract

Energy saving is becoming a topic that has been widely discussed. By 2050 all office buildings according to EU plans should be energy neutral. This implies a large potential for more efficient solutions, such as occupancy-aware local heating. Based on this idea, OfficeVitae developed a vertical heating panel for use in offices using carbon infrared heating film. This thesis collaboration between Office Vitae explored the possibilities of implementing person detection technology into the local heating system. Implementation of the smartness and the control unit interaction are main problems. To develop the standalone concept, extensive user tests were conducted to collect sufficient data for further development. There are 4 design lean cycles conducted in total after chose the design direction. The final heating strategy, overall ergonomics preference, and the interaction method were defined and elaborated. The project is finished with a standalone conceptual product that could sense occupancy presence with one PIR motion sensor and provide heating accordingly to avoid unnecessary heating in winter. The product is controlled by a reachable, simple, and direct control unit that allows workers to personalise temperature around the working area to have higher control of the workplace while saving energy by lowering the ambient temperature. Although a working prototype is not built in this project, extensive evaluations and tests with low fidelity prototypes validated the feasibility of the final design. To conclude the research, a list of generic findings, limitations of this project, and recommendations for further development are provided.