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The impact of climate change on agricultural practices is rising question marks on future food security of billions of people in tropical and sub-tropical region. Recently introduced, Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) techniques encourages the practices of sustainable agriculture, increasing adaptive capacity and resilience to shocks at multiple levels. However, in reality, it is extremely difficult to develop a single framework for climate change resilient agricultural practices for different...

Building air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation (ACMV) systems are responsible for significant energy consumption and yet, dissatisfaction with the thermal environment is prevalent among the occupants, revealing a widespread disparity between energy-efficiency and indoor thermal-comfort in buildings. This paper presents an indoor-climate control framework that bridges this gap between energy and comfort. The framework comprises two main components: a thermal-comfort prediction model,...

Building air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation (ACMV) systems are responsible for significant energy consumption and yet, dissatisfaction with the thermal environment is prevalent among the occupants, revealing a widespread disparity between energy-efficiency and indoor thermal-comfort in buildings. This paper presents an indoor-climate control framework that bridges this gap between energy and comfort. The framework comprises two main components: a thermal-comfort prediction model,...

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) is extremely energy-consuming, accounting for 40% of total building energy consumption. Therefore, it is crucial to design some energy-efficient building thermal control policies which can reduce the energy consumption of HVAC while maintaining the comfort of the occupants. However, implementing such a policy is challenging, because it involves various influencing factors in a building environment, which are usually hard to model and may be...

Many factors exist in the internal environment of building. These factors could be biological, physical, or chemical, and they determine the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of any given building. Indoor environmental quality and indoor air quality (IAQ) are used interchangeably in certain literatures; however, there is a fundamental difference between the two. While IEQ refers to the entire internal environment of a building, IAQ refers to the condition of air present within the building....

A total of 15 classrooms went through on-site assessments/inspections, including measurements of temperature (T), and concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). In addition, the level of surface biocontamination/cleaning effectiveness was assessed by measuring adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels on students' desks. Based on the data, the quality of facilities in the buildings was low. Classroom occupancy exceeded ASHRAE 50 person/100 m2 standard in all cases indicating...

The emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technology enables smart building management and operation to improve building energy efficiency and occupant thermal comfort. In this paper, we perform data analysis using the IoT generated building data to derive accurate thermal comfort model for smart building control. Deep neural network (DNN) is used to model the relationship between the controllable building operations and thermal comfort. As thermal comfort is determined by multiple comfort...

It is important to create comfortable indoor environments for building occupants. This study developed artificial neural network (ANN) models for predicting thermal comfort in indoor environments by using thermal sensations and occupants’ behavior. The models were trained by data on air temperature, relative humidity, clothing insulation, metabolic rate, thermal sensations, and occupants’ behavior collected in ten offices and ten houses/apartments. The models were able to predict similar...

Comfortable indoor climate is anticipated in hot-humid tropical condition. University classrooms are such kind of space which quality can improve the occupant’s performance directly. Due to lack of their adaptation ability, like the fixed schedule of activities and clothing causes extra heat gain from the environment and make hazardous situation. In this research, we focused to find out the comfortable condition of university classrooms in Bangladesh. The field monitoring was conducted at...

Human individual differences widely and markedly affect thermal comfort and should be carefully considered in the design and operation of the built environment. This paper aims to list and examine the magnitude and significance of individual difference in the preferred/neutral/comfort temperature through reviewing previous climate chamber and field studies. Causal factors for individual differences are investigated, including sex, age and etc. There is no clear and consistent conclusions as...

A two-­week-l­ong intervention study was performed in two classrooms in an elementary school in Costa Rica. Split-­cooling air-­conditioning (AC) units were installed in both classrooms. During the first week, the air temperature was reduced in one classroom while in the other (placebo) classroom the fans were operated but no cooling was provided. During the second week, the conditions were exchanged to create a 2 × 2 crossover design in which each pupil was their own control. A total of 37...

Thermal Comfort has the powerful ability to create moods and it also affects working conditions of individuals. In order to harness maximum comfort, a conducive environment can be created. The use of shading device is the one of the best means of creating a conducive environment. This research assesses the effect of shading device on thermal comfort in residential building and how effective these sun shading elements are, in reaching a thermally conducive environment. The scope of the study...

Energy optimization in buildings by controlling the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system is being researched extensively. In this paper, a model-free actor-critic Reinforcement Learning (RL) controller is designed using a variant of artificial recurrent neural networks called Long-Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks. Optimization of thermal comfort alongside energy consumption is the goal in tuning this RL controller. The test platform, our office space, is designed using...

Energy optimization in buildings by controlling the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system is being researched extensively. In this paper, a model-free actor-critic Reinforcement Learning (RL) controller is designed using a variant of artificial recurrent neural networks called Long-Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks. Optimization of thermal comfort alongside energy consumption is the goal in tuning this RL controller. The test platform, our office space, is designed using...

This paper evaluates the effects of solar shading strategies on thermal comfort in low-income tropical housing in Uganda. Dynamic thermal simulations are conductedand the effects of various shading strategies including curtains, roof and window overhangs, veranda and tress on solar heat gain and thermal comfort are investigated.Adaptive approach for naturally ventilated buildings defined by CEN standardis used to assess theconditions in the case study buildings. According to the results,...

The most prominent challenge in 21th century is global warming which seriously threats the mankind. Building sector with 40% of global energy consumption and GHG emission play a key role in this threat. In this regard, the impact of cooling systems cannot be ignored where along with ventilation and heating systems totally account for 60% of energy consumed in buildings. Passive cooling systems can be a promising alternative to reduce energy consumption. One of the oldest passive cooling...