When talking about energy efficiency at global scale, buildings are the cornerstone in terms of power consumption and CO2 emissions. New communication paradigms, such as Internet of Things, can improve the way sensors and actuators are accessed in smart buildings. Following this approach, we present an energy efficiency subsystem integrated with a building automation solution that makes the mos...

This paper deals with new proposals for the design of passive solutions adapted to the climate of the highlands of Madagascar. While the strongest population density is located in the central highlands, the problem of thermal comfort in buildings occurs mainly during winter time. Currently, people use raw wood to warm the poorly designed houses. This leads to a large scale deforestation of the ...

Designing for indoor thermal environmental conditions is one of the key elements in the energy efficient building design process. This paper overviews the investigation of thermal comfort conditions in China and relevant energy efficiency issues. A development of the Chinese evaluation standard for indoor thermal environments based on intensive field and laboratory studies has been introduced. ...

This paper lays the grounds for a new methodology for detecting thermal discomfort, which can potentially reduce the building energy usage while improving the comfort of its inhabitants. The paper describes our explorations in automatic human discomfort prediction using physiological signals directly collected from a buildings inhabitants. Using infrared thermography, as well as several other b...