| Summary: | Despite their high energy consumption, office thermal comfort delivery mechanisms perform poorly. The recently enacted environmental protection policies, which require a significant cutback in greenhouse gas emission, can only exacerbate this situation because, given the limitations of current thermal comfort provision technologies, a reduction in energy would translate into an increased thermal discomfort in offices. Hence, this dilemma entails alternative thermal comfort delivery systems that provide higher quality thermal comfort at lower energy. This paper proposes to use physiologically-controlled thermal comfort controllers to achieve this. It also discusses advantages of this novel approach, highlights potential unobtrusive thermal comfort biomarkers, and presents the necessary steps in designing such systems. Finally, the paper briefly discusses some of our preliminary results that showcase the feasibility of such a system.
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