Microwave Doppler Radar Occupancy Sensing for HVAC Energy Savings

Buildings consume about 30&#x0025; of the world&#x0027;s energy, and produce 37&#x0025; of global energy-related CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Building energy efficiency is becoming even more critical as climate change related events take a toll on human life, and further increas...

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Main Authors: Amy Droitcour, Shekh M. M. Islam, Ryan Neville, Miles Topping, Eileen Peppard, Victor M. Lubecke, Olga Boric-Lubecke
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Journal of Microwaves
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10731938/
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author Amy Droitcour
Shekh M. M. Islam
Ryan Neville
Miles Topping
Eileen Peppard
Victor M. Lubecke
Olga Boric-Lubecke
author_facet Amy Droitcour
Shekh M. M. Islam
Ryan Neville
Miles Topping
Eileen Peppard
Victor M. Lubecke
Olga Boric-Lubecke
author_sort Amy Droitcour
collection DOAJ
description Buildings consume about 30&#x0025; of the world&#x0027;s energy, and produce 37&#x0025; of global energy-related CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Building energy efficiency is becoming even more critical as climate change related events take a toll on human life, and further increase building energy consumption due to higher cooling needs. Reducing building energy consumption is imperative to break this detrimental cycle of harmful emissions creating more energy demand. Occupancy sensors play a crucial role in building energy efficiency by optimizing the operation of lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) and other systems based on the presence or absence of people. Microwave radar-based occupancy sensors offer improved accuracy, versatility, and coverage range over other occupancy sensors, while remaining non-intrusive and low-cost. However, building energy savings from usage of radar-based occupancy sensors has not been widely documented. Here, we show that microwave occupancy sensors, installed in an academic office building in Hawai&#x0027;i can be used to manage HVAC schedules, ultimately providing energy savings of over 6 kWh&#x002F;yr&#x002F;sf, about 20&#x0025; reduction in energy usage for this building. These results demonstrate how controlling energy consumption based on microwave occupancy sensing can greatly reduce building energy consumption which is crucial for controlling climate change.
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publishDate 2024-01-01
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spelling doaj-art-dd89fe5f4b1a43c6b75bbd32bdcf1fdb2024-12-21T00:02:39ZengIEEEIEEE Journal of Microwaves2692-83882024-01-014491992710.1109/JMW.2024.346475910731938Microwave Doppler Radar Occupancy Sensing for HVAC Energy SavingsAmy Droitcour0Shekh M. M. Islam1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8602-6970Ryan Neville2https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8595-3959Miles Topping3Eileen Peppard4Victor M. Lubecke5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8407-3554Olga Boric-Lubecke6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2877-73592050 Partners, Orinda, CA, USADepartment of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, BangladeshUnited States Military Academy, West Point, NY, USAUniversity of Hawai&#x2018;i Office of Sustainability, Honolulu, HI, USACenter of Excellence for Smart Building and Community Design, University of Hawai&#x0027;i Sea Grant College Program, Honolulu, HI, USADepartment of Electrical &amp; Computer Engineering, University of Hawai&#x0027;i at M&#x0101;noa, Honolulu, HI, USADepartment of Electrical &amp; Computer Engineering, University of Hawai&#x0027;i at M&#x0101;noa, Honolulu, HI, USABuildings consume about 30&#x0025; of the world&#x0027;s energy, and produce 37&#x0025; of global energy-related CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Building energy efficiency is becoming even more critical as climate change related events take a toll on human life, and further increase building energy consumption due to higher cooling needs. Reducing building energy consumption is imperative to break this detrimental cycle of harmful emissions creating more energy demand. Occupancy sensors play a crucial role in building energy efficiency by optimizing the operation of lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) and other systems based on the presence or absence of people. Microwave radar-based occupancy sensors offer improved accuracy, versatility, and coverage range over other occupancy sensors, while remaining non-intrusive and low-cost. However, building energy savings from usage of radar-based occupancy sensors has not been widely documented. Here, we show that microwave occupancy sensors, installed in an academic office building in Hawai&#x0027;i can be used to manage HVAC schedules, ultimately providing energy savings of over 6 kWh&#x002F;yr&#x002F;sf, about 20&#x0025; reduction in energy usage for this building. These results demonstrate how controlling energy consumption based on microwave occupancy sensing can greatly reduce building energy consumption which is crucial for controlling climate change.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10731938/Occupancy sensingHVACDoppler radarbuilding energymicrowaves in climate change
spellingShingle Amy Droitcour
Shekh M. M. Islam
Ryan Neville
Miles Topping
Eileen Peppard
Victor M. Lubecke
Olga Boric-Lubecke
Microwave Doppler Radar Occupancy Sensing for HVAC Energy Savings
IEEE Journal of Microwaves
Occupancy sensing
HVAC
Doppler radar
building energy
microwaves in climate change
title Microwave Doppler Radar Occupancy Sensing for HVAC Energy Savings
title_full Microwave Doppler Radar Occupancy Sensing for HVAC Energy Savings
title_fullStr Microwave Doppler Radar Occupancy Sensing for HVAC Energy Savings
title_full_unstemmed Microwave Doppler Radar Occupancy Sensing for HVAC Energy Savings
title_short Microwave Doppler Radar Occupancy Sensing for HVAC Energy Savings
title_sort microwave doppler radar occupancy sensing for hvac energy savings
topic Occupancy sensing
HVAC
Doppler radar
building energy
microwaves in climate change
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10731938/
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AT ryanneville microwavedopplerradaroccupancysensingforhvacenergysavings
AT milestopping microwavedopplerradaroccupancysensingforhvacenergysavings
AT eileenpeppard microwavedopplerradaroccupancysensingforhvacenergysavings
AT victormlubecke microwavedopplerradaroccupancysensingforhvacenergysavings
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