Mitja Košir

Integral Control of Health Hazards in Hospital Environment

Hospitals present complex indoor environment with various users, health hazards and specific activities. This paper classifies health hazards specific to the hospital environment (HE), defines their interactions and possible impacts on human health and summarizes recommendations for biological and chemical hazards. A detailed literature review clearly shows that there is no developed system or method for integral control of health hazards in HE. There is no appropriate technology available that would allow development of optimal thermal comfort conditions for individual users in HE. For integral control of physical hazards, an innovative low exergy (LowEx) system was designed and tested. The system enables individual control of thermal comfort parameters to meet the needs of various users in the same room. It enables the design of optional conditions for healthcare and treatment considering the different requirements of individual patients and thermally neutral zones for other users. The system application is presented in a model room for burns patient. The measured energy use was lower by 11–27% for space heating and by 32–73% for cooling, when using LowEx system as compared to the conventional system. Owning to its flexibility, the system can also be used for other potential users.

Application of fuzzy logic in the regulation of Internal Environment of buildings

Internal environments in buildings can greatly benefit from the application of automated regulation. Such systems can lower energy consumption and boost user efficiency. Best results can be achieved through the application of a holistic approach where the buildings envelopes as well as the installed systems are regulated by an integral system for visual, thermal and ventilation parameters. In the paper an Integral Control system of Internal Environment (ICsIE) is presented and described. The system uses fuzzy logic controllers as well as conventional PI controllers linked in a cascade system. The system is installed in an occupied office of the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering (FGG) in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The system has been operational since early 2009 and is capable to regulate internal visual, thermal and ventilation parameters of the office. System efficiency has been proven through numerous experiments, one of which is also presented in the paper.