Comprehensive analysis of the relationship between thermal comfort and building control research - A data-driven literature review

Abstract

Buildings are responsible for about 30–40% of global energy demand. At the same time, we humans spend almost our entire life, up to 80–90% of the time, inside of buildings. Reducing energy demand through optimal operation is the subject of building control research, while human satisfaction in buildings is studied in the thermal comfort community. Thus, balancing the two is necessary for a sustainable and comfortable building stock. We review both research fields and their relationship using a data-driven approach. Based on specific search terms, all relevant abstracts from the Web Of Science database are downloaded and analyzed using the text mining software VOSviewer. We visualize the scientific landscapes of historic and recent trends, and analyze the citation network to investigate the interaction between thermal comfort and building control research. We find that building control focuses predominantly on energy savings rather than incorporating results from thermal comfort, especially when it comes to occupant satisfaction. We identify potential research directions in terms of bridging the two fields.