Retrofit control solutions for old buildings using WSN

Sustainability of old buildings is constantly challenged due to its non-compliance with energy saving practices. Old buildings which aim to deploy technologies to improve thermal comfort face some infrastructure constraints. The sustainability of such buildings is dependent on occupant's thermal comfort, low carbon emissions and reduced energy consumption. Such buildings face restraints in the way in which wired and wireless technologies could be used to implement sensing and control actions. Constraints include infrastructure limitations and space usage restrictions. This paper discusses retrofit solutions for old buildings for minimizing energy consumption and maximizing the occupant's comfort. The implementation of the retrofitted solution in an existing old building with minimal infrastructure change is elaborated. This includes implementation of thermal comfort based algorithm for zonal damper control, indoor air quality based window control and light sensor based blinds control. The sensing and control action is based on indigenous circuits communicating through ZigBee wireless protocol in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) of motes. A WingZ gateway runs the thermal comfort algorithm and acts as command centre for the WSN. The research aims to demonstrate the possibility of extending sustainability of existing old buildings by using energy conscious building automation solutions where large scale infrastructure change is not possible.