  Thermal comfort in shared spaces is essential to occupants well-being and
necessary in the management of energy consumption. Existing thermal control
systems for indoor shared spaces adjust temperature set points mechanically,
making it difficult to intelligently achieve thermal comfort for all. Recent
studies have shown that thermal comfort in a shared space is difficult to
achieve due to individual preferences and the inability of occupants to reach a
thermal compromise on temperature set points. This paper proposes a thermal
comfort system to automatically adjust the temperature set-points in a shared
space whilst recognising individual preferences. The control strategy of the
proposed system is based on an algorithm to adjust the temperature set point of
the shared space using the individual thermal preferences and predicted thermal
comfort value of the occupants. The thermal preferences of the occupants are
determined first and used as part of the occupants profile, which is mapped to
thermal comfort values predicted from the occupants measured physiological data
and environmental data. A consensus is reached by the algorithm to find the
optimal temperature set-point, which takes into account individual thermal
preferences and their physiological responses.
