Development of a Manufacturable Heated Garment for User-Environment Collaborative Control of Thermal Microclimate
Team: Heidi Woelfle, Rolf Jacobson, Lucy Dunne
Program: Wearable Technology Lab, Center for Sustainable Building Research
Indoor heating is one of the largest single uses of energy in the United States. A large part of energy used for heating (22.7%, by one model) is used to heat unoccupied spaces. Occupancy-based heating strategies are estimated to have the potential to reduce energy consumption by up to 67%. In our prior collaborative project, we assessed the potential impacts of on-body heating strategies for different types of indoor spaces. We found that energy savings were significant for all building types studied, with the highest potential in older buildings and large, sparsely-occupied buildings like warehouses.
Our work developing on-body heating devices has shown considerable variability between individuals in both physiological response to cool temperatures (how the body’s thermoregulatory systems respond to temperature change), as well as psychophysical experience of temperature (how the individual perceives and prefers different temperatures). We designed a wearable heating system that allows the user to control the location and degree of supplemental heating. Our next step is to deploy this system in an environment identified as high-potential in our previous project to study impacts on comfort and energy expenditure. To be competitive for funding for that study, we need a manufacturable version of our prototype garment.
Keywords: Wearable Technology, E-Textiles, Sustainable Heating
Funder: This work is supported by the College of Design Collaborative Research Grant.
