Building-Specific Comfort Models

Occupant Feedback in Automated Fault Detection and Diagnosis of HVAC Systems

Conference Paper (2026)
Author(s)

Martín Mosteiro-Romero (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)

Nitant Upasani (Eindhoven University of Technology)

Laure Itard (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)

Research Group
Water Systems Engineering
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Publication Year
2026
Language
English
Research Group
Water Systems Engineering
Pages (from-to)
1073-1080
Event
19th International Conference of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (2026-06-14 - 2026-06-18), SMU Yong Pung How School of Law Building, Singapore, Singapore
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Abstract

Automated fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) of systems can allow component and control faults to be identified and rectified early to minimize their impacts. However, occupant behavior and feedback are typically neglected in FDD processes. In this paper, we develop building-specific comfort models for whole building HVAC system FDD. The models are based on random forest classification with two target variables: thermal preference and indoor air quality. The methodology is applied on a seven-floor office building in Delft, the Netherlands. The model is trained on subjective feedback provided by 15 study participants through a smartphone application as well as data from distributed sensors deployed in their offices during the period September–October 2024. The model is used to represent a “typical” occupant’s comfort perception in the case study building using the limited information available in the BMS data, allowing for long-term FDD in HVAC systems without the need for recurrent feedback.

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