“Smart Lamp” optimizes indoor thermal comfort and energy savings

Open Source “Smart Lamp” for the Optimization of Plant Systems and Thermal Comfort of Offices
This article describes the design phase, development and practical application of a smart object integrated into a desk lamp and called “Smart Lamp”, which is useful for optimizing the indoor thermal comfort and energy savings; two important workplace issues where the comfort of the workers and the consumption of the building strongly affect the economic balance of a company. The Smart Lamp was built using a microcontroller, an integrated temperature and relative humidity sensor, other modules and a 3D printer. This smart device is similar to the desk lamps that are usually found in offices but this one allows an individual to adjust the indoor thermal comfort by interacting directly with the air conditioner. After the construction phase, the Smart Lamp was installed in an office normally occupied by four workers to evaluate the indoor thermal comfort and the cooling consumption in summer. The results showed how the application of the Smart Lamp effectively reduced the energy consumption, optimizing the thermal comfort. The use of DIY approach combined with read-write functionality of websites, blog and social platforms, also allowed to customize, improve, share, reproduce and interconnect technologies so that anybody could use them in any occupied environment.