The scope of the present annex includes all types of PECS for local heating, cooling, ventilation, air cleaning, lighting, and acoustics. It includes desktop systems, which are mounted on desks or integrated in a furniture, chairs with heating/cooling and ventilation and other types that can be found. It also includes wearables, where heating, cooling, and ventilation are included in garments or devices attached to occupants’ body.

Personalised Environmental Control Systems (PECS) with the functions of heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and acoustics has advantages of controlling the localized environment at occupant’s workstation by their preference instead of conditioning an entire room. This improves personal comfort, health and energy efficiency of the entire heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system substantially. Personalized ventilation will also protect against cross contaminations, which are critical in open plan offices and work places with close distance.

Previous studies have shown that 'personalised environmental control systems' (PECS) improve occupants’ satisfaction with the indoor environment substantially. However, most of those studies were carried out under controlled conditions and long-term performance studies from real buildings are lacking. There is also a gap in the knowledge and tools necessary to make these systems widely-applicable in buildings. Based on this need, the objective of this project is to establish design criteria and operation guidelines for PECS and to quantify the benefits regarding health, comfort and energy performance. 

Start date: 2021 - End date: 2026

More information here.