What can be saved in terms of interior conditioning? That is the big question to which multiple answers can be provided.
In short, if we accept the thermal comfort of the stone age era then a 100% of all energy consumption related to HVAC can be saved. That corresponds about 30% of the final energy consumption of the European society. However, who want to return to stone age? We want thermal comfort!
However, do you know what is your comfort?

Problem

The problem of energy savings is tackled most often with technological improvements such as an improved building insulation or more efficient HVAC systems. However, the main driver of energy consumption for HVAC are we self. It is our thermal expectations that are the main reason why energy is consumed. The equation is easy: If we do not require heat, ventilation or air conditioning, there is not energy consumption.
The problem is that it is difficult to quantitatively express our minimal thermal needs since our body is capable of adapting to various climates.

Solution

ComfortID provides a unique solution to this problem by comparing the temperature you have been exposed to the minimal temperature you require to feel comfortable. In Swedish climate expected savings over a year are 3.5% for reducing the set temperature by 1°C and 2.5% if the heating system is reduced automatically for any absence (assumption 40h/w).

Therefore, every day there is the opportunity for savings as exemplified in the figure below.

Multiple persons in a same room represent a challenge in terms of provision of individualized thermal comfort. With common HVAC technologies aiming at conditioning a room homogeneously this is unsolvable in case the thermal expectations are conflicting.
In the future, with personalized conditioning systems (PCS) such as heaters integrated in chairs or personalized radiation heaters several persons in the same room may experience different thermal conditions.

Problem

The problem of collective usage of space is that the decision-making process for finding the compromise satisfying everyone is most commonly not fair and definitively not environmental friendly. A simple fact is that wearing more clothes is more cumbersome than wearing less. Therefore, the usual scenario end up satisfying primordially the highest thermal expectations as represented by #3 in figure below. The user that requires less heat adapts to the higher climate expectations of the other user by removing his clothes. The loss of thermal comfort is compensated by a gain of garment comfort.

Solution

ComfortID provides a solution to this problem that causes more energy consumption than necessary. It provides awareness on a user's expectations. Using statistical methods the probability distribution of thermal satisfaction dependent on temperature is calculated for every user. The users' sharing a collective space can decide upon a eco/comfort setting which automatic indoor climate is generated. In case eco is selected the lowest temperature is set that satisfies all users to an extent of 95% of time (#1 in above figure). In case of comfort, the temperature is selected to maximise all user's satisfaction probability (#2 in above figure).