Short overview on control algorithms in building occupant-centric control

Due to rapid advances in communication and information technologies, the concept of intelligent buildings is attracting increasing interest. These structures have the ability to anticipate weather patterns, ambient temperature and sunlight, and can adjust heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) operations based on historical and real-time data. Despite a considerable amount of recent research focusing on understanding and regulating personalized thermal preferences to satisfy individuals in buildings, a notable gap persists between individual comfort studies and building thermal comfort research. This brief overview aims to review studies on control algorithms that integrate personalized thermal preferences into building control systems, and their effectiveness in balancing occupant comfort and energy efficiency. The studies fall mainly into two categories: normal reactive control (feedback) and advanced predictive control. This categorization provides valuable insights into current trends, identifies research gaps and highlights the need for future work.