Building Airflow Monitoring and Control using Wireless Sensor Networks for Smart Grid Application

The electricity grid is crucial to our lives. Households and institutions count on it. In recent years, the sources of energy have become less and less available and they are driving the price of electricity higher and higher. It has been estimated that 40% of power is spent in residential and institutional buildings. Most of this power is absorbed by space cooling and heating. In modern buildings, the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system is centralised and operated by a department usually called the central plant. The central plant produces chilled water and steam that is then consumed by the building AHUs (Air Handling Units) to maintain the buildings at a comfortable temperature. However, the heating and cooling model does not take into account human occupancy. The AHU within the building distributes air according to the design parameters of the building ignoring the occupancy. As a matter of fact, there is a potential for optimization lowering consumption to utilize energy efficiently and also to be able to adapt to the changing cost of energy in a micro-grid environment. This system makes it possible to reduce the consumption when needed minimizing impact on the consumer. In this study, we will show, through a set of studies conducted at the University of Houston, that there is a potential for energy conservation and efficiency in both the buildings and the central plant. We also present a strategy that can be undertaken to meet this goal. This strategy, airflow monitoring and control, is tested in a software simulation and the results are presented. This system enables the user to control and monitor the temperature in the individual rooms according the locals needs.