Economically optimal climate control in building zones equipped with heating and cooling elements and forced ventilation

master thesis, 2017 

Based on the available consumption data buildings are one of the largest energy consumers in the world. The use of heating, cooling and forced ventilation elements, at the same time, is often the case in modern office buildings to provide desired conditions for the end-users.

Configuration of two building zones equipped with heating and cooling elements and inflow of air prepared in air handling unit is considered in this paper. Mathematical model which describes dynamical temperature and CO2 concentration behaviour in building zone is derived for the previously described building zone configuration. Afterwards, optimal control algorithm for the air-conditioning of building zone, which uses sequential linearization and minimizes total cost for the maintenance of required temperature and CO2 conditions at the appropriate time-frame in the future, was developed. Optimal control system which uses receding horizon principle has been implemented and tested in Matlab /Simulink environment.

Keywords: Zone ventilation,air conditioning, reheating, comfort, economic viability, control, MPC, sequential linearisation, HVAC.