IoT infrared sensor for continuous monitoring of building envelope thermal performances

Continuous measurement of building's thermal performances is relevant to guarantee the first function of a building: providing a comfortable and healthy living environment with minimum energy consumption. This work aims at exploring the Comfort Eye, an IoT multi-sensor device, applied for continuous and real-time building's thermal monitoring. In this context, the Comfort Eye is adopted to identify the main sources of discomfort or inefficiencies of building's envelope, e.g., points of condensation risk, and to provide an alternative experimental method for measuring the surface temperature of building elements, through which it is possible to estimate the heat transfer coefficient or U-value. To validate the method for measuring the thermal insulation performance of building elements, a verification experiment using a real building was conducted. The results confirmed that the required measuring accuracy can be assured. Moreover, the innovative methodology described in this paper can be used for relatively fast and inexpensive U-value estimation without the use of additional measurement equipment (e.g., heat flux sensors)