Monitoring and Sensing of Climatic Chambers Using Real-Time Thermal Imaging and IoT Sensors

Abstract

Thermal monitoring and sensing are fundamental to achieving energy efficiency without sacrificing comfort. Traditional contact sensors with point measurements presents inefficiency in data collection for a large area, and possible inaccuracies due to contact with target surface. Thermography is a power optical tool that can efficiently capture spatial temperature distribution and identify thermal anomalies without contact. Studies in the literature have shown the potential and applications of such technology. As the built industry head towards green and intelligent buildings, it necessitates the research for remote and real-time monitoring technologies. This research aims to address the research problem by establishing a remote thermal imaging system for real time monitoring and sensing. Its ability to conduct quantitative measurements on window glazing surfaces, ECW and Low-e, are investigated. The research hypothesised that thermal imaging can provide accurate surface temperature measurements of the selected glazing and analysis of the performance of the windows. The IR measurements are correlated to the measurements by Pt-100 as well as relevant environmental sensors to determine its accuracy performance. Promising results are derived through this study, where reasonably accurate temperature measurements with only a 10.4% deviation were achieved. To add on, better results were observed under cloudy sky conditions, and it can be inferred from the IR measurements that ECW has a better performance than Low-e coated glass.