OREANDA-NEWS. September 08, 2016. The University of California, Berkeley, said on Tuesday its Center for the Built Environment (CBE) will lead a project to integrate commercially available "smart" ceiling fans and communicating thermostats in ways that may improve energy efficiency and comfort in multi-family residential and small commercial buildings.

The project, with about 1.9 million U.S. dollars from the California Energy Commission, plus matching funds from CBE's industry partners, is based on the idea that a generation of new internet-enabled products can improve customers' comfort while reducing energy costs.

While internet-enabled products do offer opportunities, uncertainties remain in quantifying their benefits, prompting researchers to hope that the project will produce insights through laboratory tests and field demonstrations, using ceiling fans with controls that respond to the environment and occupants' preferences, and thermostats that offer learning and communicating capabilities.

An intelligent fan control system, branded "SenseME" technology, will be subject to thermal comfort tests to identify the combinations of temperature, humidity, and air velocity that would provide the most comfort, UC Berkeley said in a news release. And demonstration sites will include housing units, common areas and fitness facilities in historically under-served low-income, multi-family housing in California.

In addition, the researchers will conduct complementary laboratory studies to develop standardized methods for testing and rating fans for energy and comfort performance, in an effort to formulate new standards that will help manufacturers refine their offerings and help customers to make informed choices.

The idea of integrating communicating thermostats with "human-centric" products such as ceiling fans is original, noted CBE professor of architecture Gail Brager, an expert in energy and green buildings who will lead the project. "By integrating these smart products correctly, we hope to show that using less energy does not need to be at the expense of people's comfort."

Brager believe such approaches will help the Golden State on the U.S. west coast meet its goal of having all new homes incur net-zero energy usage by 2020.