Heating People Instead of Buildings

Buildings, a recent article in The Economist claims, aren’t very good consumers of heat. During wintertime, a great deal of energy gets wasted heating empty residences in the daytime and keeping commercial spaces toasty at nighttime.

That’s also true even when the buildings are filled with people, as unoccupied spaces still get heated to the same extent as occupied ones. One prime example: Those lofty atriums that many corporations have in their gleaming buildings – spaces which are usually not occupied by more than a handful of people and yet are kept warm practically 24/7.

After a 2012 report found that the building occupancy of a pair of structures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) didn’t track well with the amount of energy expended on them, the report’s co-author began wondering whether more heat could be aimed at people as they go about their business indoors. This thinking gave rise to The Local Warming Project, which uses a combination of infra-red lamps, servo motors and optics to direct rays of heat at people, who are tracked by a Wi-Fi based system.

The Local Warming system can work with a smartphone app that allows every individual to set their ideal temperature. Each person is then heated by a variety of LEDs in order to sidestep the feeling that only part of their body is being heated – something that often occurs with mushroom-style heat lamps. “It’s almost like having a personal sun following you around,” says the co-author.

One drawback: If you leave your smartphone in your car or at your desk, you might not be so comfortable while you’re sitting in a meeting a short distance away. You’d simply be subject to whatever temperature is being held by the building’s HVAC system. Even if you have your phone with you, the temperature you want might be markedly different from that of a co-worker who’s having a chat with you halfway down the hallway. Naturally, more research is needed, as are more tests cases. But the idea seems to have gained traction.

Questions about achieving your personal comfort level with your existing HVAC system? Contact AC World today!