Occupancy monitoring using passive RFID technology for efficient building lighting control

The control of artificial lighting is a key parameter to be considered in buildings towards energy and cost savings. Efficient, need-based control of building lighting through occupancy detection using Passive Infrared (PIR) sensors has become a reliable and well established approach. However, the use of only PIR sensors for occupancy monitoring does not offer much savings and depends upon a building's type and use, and its occupancy levels. Accuracy of occupancy monitoring greatly affects building lighting control strategy and hence, percentage savings. Besides considering lighting control based on occupancy detection using PIR sensors, this paper presents a data fusion approach of passive RFID based occupancy monitoring with PIR. The proposed methodology provides an estimated 13% of electrical energy savings in one open plan office of a University campus building. Practical implementation of RFID gateways provide real-world occupancy profiling data to be fused with PIR sensing towards analysis and improvement of building lighting usage.