STTR Phase II: Connected low-power wearable technology that provides personalized thermal comfort in offices

这个小型企业技术转让（STTR）二期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为世界各地建筑的热环境调节的未来做出重大贡献。这种联网、低功耗、可穿戴的个人舒适系统可以缓解美国劳动力（女性比例过高或属于老龄化人口）缺乏热量的状况，从而提高他们在工作场所的幸福感、满意度和生产力。个人舒适系统可以将工人的生产力提高2-3%，释放目前美国因热不适而损失的170亿美元的经济产出，并且可以将空间加热/冷却建筑的成本降低20-30%，当集成到智能建筑系统中。由于世界上大约10%的能源用于商业建筑内部的供暖和制冷，这项技术可以为保护我们的地球和子孙后代的福祉做出有影响力的贡献。拟议的项目将支持一个连接的、低功耗的可穿戴个人舒适系统的开发和演示，为建筑居住者提供个性化的热舒适。美国人90%以上的时间都在室内度过，建筑占我们总能耗的40%左右，但超过40%的办公大楼员工对他们的热环境不满意。拟议的项目有可能纠正这种不平衡，提高居住者的舒适度和生产力，同时减少建筑物的能源消耗。在第一阶段，我们展示了一种连接的、可穿戴的个人舒适系统，该系统仅使用1-2 W的功率，就能将感知环境温度提高+/-6°f以上。为了利用这一巨大的技术潜力，第二阶段的研发将解决围绕人体工程学和热管理的剩余技术挑战，在实验室环境中深入验证设备的功效，并最终在智能建筑中部署这项技术，并量化对建筑和建筑居住者的影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project is to make significant contributions to the future of thermal environmental conditioning in buildings throughout the world. The connected, low power, wearable personal comfort systems can provide relief for the thermally-underserved of America's workforce (who are disproportionately female or part of the aging population), thereby improving their workplace wellbeing, satisfaction, and productivity. The personal comfort system could increase worker productivity by 2-3%, unlocking $17B economic output that is currently lost due to thermal discomfort in the United States, and could reduce the cost of space heating/cooling buildings by 20-30% when integrated into smart building systems. As roughly 10% of the world's energy is spent heating and cooling the interiors of commercial buildings, this technology can make an impactful contribution to the preservation of our planet and the wellbeing of future generations. The proposed project will support the development and demonstration of a connected, low-power wearable personal comfort system that provides personalized thermal comfort to building occupants. Americans spend over 90% of their time indoors, buildings are responsible for about 40% of our total energy consumption, and yet over 40% of people in office buildings are dissatisfied with their thermal environments. The proposed project has the potential to correct this imbalance, improving occupant comfort and productivity while reducing the energy consumed by buildings. In Phase I, we demonstrated a connected, wearable personal comfort system that can improve the perceived environmental temperature by over +/-6 degF using only 1-2 W of power. In order to harness this enormous technological potential, this Phase II R&D will address remaining technical challenges around ergonomics and thermal management, intensively validate the efficacy of the devices in a laboratory setting, and culminate in deploying this technology in smart buildings and quantifying the effect on both the building and the building occupants.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.