THE USE OF THE WEARABLE SENSORY DEVICES FOR METABOLIC RATE ESTIMATION

Abstract

The human metabolic rate has been widely noted as the least accurately assessed parameter in the research of thermal comfort. Since it is difficult to measure, it is often reduced on simple diary methods which do not take into account the influence of age, gender, and daily dynamics of a building occupant. In this study wearable sensory device were used to track user activities inside the building to estimate the metabolic rate. Eight participants were chosen for the 7-days monitoring, four times during the year. The study aimed to examine whether the user age, gender, and season of the year influence the change in user metabolic rate to improve the thermal environment of the HVAC system building. The results showed the difference between groups of building occupants that could serve as a reference to assess personal thermal comfort in future research.