A dense RFID network for flexible Thermal Monitoring

Indoor climate control is a key feature for smart homes. Automatic systems exploit data collected by temperature sensors for managing heating, ventilation and air conditioning. This paper investigates the benefits of a dense deployment of pervasive temperature sensors. In particular, this study is focused of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID). The benefits and drawbacks of RFIDs are discussed and compared to other pervasive technologies. The analysis takes into account many properties, such as simplicity and time of development, flexibility, wired/wireless range, battery life, reliability and cost. A case study with field test shows that the RFID network is suitable for thermal monitoring, and that a high level of sensor density provides useful data to tune the climate control.