Design and Development of a Nearable Wireless System to Control Indoor Air Quality and Indoor Lighting Quality

The article describes the results of the project “open source Smart lamp” aimed at designing and developing a smart object able to manage and control the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) of the built environment. A first version of this smart object, built following a DIY approach using a microcontroller, an integrated temperature and relative humidity sensor and techniques of Additive Manufacturing, allows for the adjustment of the Indoor thermal Comfort Quality (ICQ), by interacting directly with the air conditioner. An experimental test in a real office showed how the use of the Smart Lamp effectively reduced energy consumption for air conditioning, optimizing the thermal comfort of the workers. As it is well known, the IEQ is a holistic concept including the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), the Indoor Lighting Quality (ILQ) and Acoustic comfort, besides the thermal comfort. The upgrade of the Smart Lamp bridges this gap providing the possibility to interact with the air exchange unit and lighting system, in order to get an overview of the potential of a nearable device in the management of the IEQ. The upgraded version was tested in an office equipped with a mechanical ventilation and air conditioning system and occupied by 4 workers. The experiment was compared with a baseline scenario and the results showed how the application of the nearable device effectively optimizes both IAQ and ILQ