Wireless sensing for the built environment: enabling innovation towards greener, healthier homes

Worldwide carbon reduction targets for the built environment are staggeringly ambitious. If they are to be achieved, orders of magnitude performance increases are required from HVAC systems, construction techniques and insulating materials. Given the limited understanding of many of the newer materials and techniques, objective measurement is fundamental to meeting these targets in time. This paper presents the case for a holistic approach to measurement within the built environment and shows how Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a prime candidate technology to support such an approach.

WSNs are readily enablers of understanding in domains characterised by spatio-temporal, multivariate complexity. Simple, portable and non-intrusive WSN systems, deployed for weeks or years, are powerful tools for empirical environmental and energy performance evaluation of occupied dwellings. Coupled with structured deployment processes and novel empirical evaluation metrics, WSNs enable, for old stock, focused actions towards reduced energy consumption, improved internal environment, lower maintenance costs and maintaining the cost viability of the building asset. They are equally valuable in the context of new builds, for generic and apportioned energy consumption evaluations against the delivered environmental quality and design expectations.