Simulation Model of Automated HVAC System Control Strategy With Thermal Comfort and Occupancy Considerations

Abstract

Currently, design and control of HVAC system in buildings rely heavily on simulation tools. However, the common tools available often fail to optimize occupants’ comfort directly, nor do they consider real-time variations in occupancy that affect comfort and energy performance. To address these limits, this research designed an occupancy-based and thermal comfort-driven building automation simulation model. A single-space prototype lab room was co-simulated using EnergyPlus and MATLAB with the help of BCVTB and MLE+ as middleware. Various climate scenarios from four cities in the U.S. in different seasons were examined. Results suggest that overall, compared to a conventional temperature-driven control strategy baseline, the proposed system can minimize thermal comfort violation (in term of PMV model, |PMV|>0.5 is considered as a violation) to 7% and reduce occupants’ thermal discomfort by 62.5% on average. Meanwhile, energy consumption remains same or reduced (up to 2% reduction). Due to its simplicity, this strategy is relatively easy to implement in real-world building automation systems with appropriate sensor placement in modern buildings.

Development of a Coupled EnergyPlus-MATLAB Simulation Based on LSTM for Predictive Control of HVAC System

“…Many of the previous studies used energy simulators such as TRNSYS, EnergyPlus, and Matlab/Simulink to simulate the HVAC operating conditions. Peng et al [10] used Matlab and EnergyPlus co-simulation to study the PID control of thermal comfort in four typical kinds of climates, depending on the occupancy rate of buildings. Lapusan et al [11] studied an equivalent thermal multiroom model in Simscape, a toolbox of Matlab.…”