Model-based Optimal Control of a Building HVAC System

摘要

A model-based optimal control strategy is explored to minimize a building Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) energy consumption in the heating mode. Energy performance models for individual component, including the Air Handler Unit (AHU) heating coil, the supply fan and the Variable Air Volume (VAV) terminal box reheat coil, are built through a data-driven method. Thermal response of the room air is established using a non-linear regression based identification approach. The AHU supply air temperature and the room air temperature are considered as the constrained condition. A platform of AMPL (A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming) is used to for mathematical modeling and links to the optimization solvers. A case study using the data collected from the Energy Resource Station at the Iowa Energy Center was conducted using the proposed strategy. The comparison between the baseline and the simulation-based case with the proposed model-based optimal control indicated that a 22.1% savings potential of total energy consumption could be achieved.