SmartVent: A Smart Ventilation Solution for Comfortable Indoor Environment

Ventilation is a cost-effective solution for attaining a healthy and comfortable indoor environment. This work presents an Internet of Things (IoT)-based low-cost smart ventilation solution considering indoor air quality and thermal comfort based on intelligently controlling the air-flow direction of bidirectional ventilation fan. The direction of air flow (inward/outward) is controlled based on outdoor and indoor environmental parameters. For decision support, the IoT-based solution considers location-specific outdoor environmental parameters, fetched from the Internet (weather cloud), and the indoor environmental parameters measured through sensors. The solution considers a scalable architecture to support multiple fan units, which could be helpful in creating customized air-flow patterns. Solution prototypes with a manual mode and an automatic/auto mode (considering thermal comfort) of operations demonstrate effective decision making related to the air-flow direction. The experimental results related to air-flow patterns under two fan deployment scenarios are also encouraging. The solution could help in better management of indoor air circulation and it could be useful in various indoor settings, e.g., houses, offices, factories, hospitals, etc.