Self-Powered Wireless Sensor Network Designed for Energy Saving in HVAC Systems

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are a promising technology to monitor the state of large buildings and provide the necessary data for continuous optimization of energy consumption, for instance, related to thermal comfort or lighting control. For these applications, currently available off-the-shelf WSN devices are still too expensive for deployment in large quantities, require considerable amount of work to integrate with specific sensors, usually include many unnecessary components, and most consume too much energy, therefore requiring frequent battery replacement or powering from building’s electrical network. The work hereby presented describes the development and testing of WSN nodes based on Ultra-Low-Power components, suitable for energy efficiency related applications in buildings, such as Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning and thermal comfort control. The proposed nodes are capable of self-powering under frequently available conditions, are small in size, and may be competitive in price, therefore being appropriate for large scale deployment in large buildings.