Unveiling Patterns in Room Occupancy: A Data-Driven Approach

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Intro­duc­tion

In the world of smart build­ings and effi­cient space man­age­ment, under­stand­ing room occu­pan­cy pat­terns is cru­cial. Thanks to IoT (Inter­net of Things) sen­sor tech­nol­o­gy, we can now gath­er com­pre­hen­sive data on envi­ron­men­tal para­me­ters that indi­cate human pres­ence. In this blog post, we delve into recent data cap­tured by IoT sen­sors to unearth the occu­pan­cy trends in a spe­cif­ic room.

A Snap­shot of Envi­ron­men­tal Con­di­tions

Before inter­pret­ing occu­pan­cy, let’s con­sid­er the envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions. The aver­age read­ings from our IoT sen­sors are as fol­lows:

  • Tem­per­a­ture: 21°C — A mod­er­ate and com­fort­able tem­per­a­ture indi­cat­ing a con­trolled envi­ron­ment.
  • Humid­i­ty: 28.1% — This is rel­a­tive­ly low, sug­gest­ing an indoor set­ting pos­si­bly with air con­di­tion­ing.
  • Light: 409 lux — Indica­tive of indoor light­ing con­di­tions dur­ing work­ing hours.
  • CO2: 1864 ppm — Sig­nif­i­cant­ly high, like­ly point­ing to a shared space with mul­ti­ple occu­pants.
  • Humid­i­ty Ratio: 0.00432 — This ratio, which com­bines tem­per­a­ture and humid­i­ty, con­firms the con­di­tions con­ducive for human com­fort.

Light vs. CO2

Fluc­tu­a­tions in light and CO2 lev­els are imme­di­ate indi­ca­tors of room usage. The graph shows a clear pat­tern of light usage, with spikes that often coin­cide with increas­es in CO2 lev­els, sug­gest­ing that these moments are when the room is most occu­pied.

Tem­per­a­ture vs. Humid­i­ty

The inter­play between tem­per­a­ture and humid­i­ty is less direct but still telling. A rel­a­tive­ly sta­ble tem­per­a­ture along­side vary­ing humid­i­ty lev­els could indi­cate the use of HVAC sys­tems respond­ing to occu­pan­cy lev­els.

Occu­pan­cy Pat­terns: Read­ing Between the Lines

The most direct data comes from the occu­pan­cy heatmap. Over a span of three days, we see that the room has the high­est occu­pan­cy on day 15, with a sig­nif­i­cant drop on days 14 and 16. This could imply reg­u­lar events or peak usage on cer­tain days of the week.

Humid­i­ty Ratio Trends

The humid­i­ty ratio over time shows vari­a­tions that are less dra­mat­ic but still rel­e­vant. Peaks in this graph might align with human activ­i­ty pat­terns as air exhaled by peo­ple con­tains mois­ture, which can affect the humid­i­ty ratio.

Con­clu­sions

There is a cor­re­la­tion between light, CO2 lev­els, and occu­pan­cy, which could be used for smart build­ing man­age­ment.
The con­sis­tent tem­per­a­ture sug­gests an effec­tive cli­mate con­trol sys­tem that pos­si­bly adjusts to occu­pan­cy.
Peak occu­pan­cy seems to be on spe­cif­ic days, hint­ing at reg­u­lar events or sched­ules.
High CO2 lev­els are a con­cern and could be used to alert build­ing man­agers to ven­ti­late the space or lim­it occu­pan­cy for health rea­sons.


In the age of smart tech­nol­o­gy, this data is more than just num­bers; it’s a tool for opti­miz­ing our liv­ing and work­ing envi­ron­ments. By con­tin­u­ing to ana­lyze these para­me­ters, we can make more informed deci­sions that affect com­fort, ener­gy con­sump­tion, and even the health of those with­in the space.