ASHRAE - American Society of Heating@ Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers@ Inc.
Scope
ABSTRACT This paper investigates anticipatory control strategies in a house designed to have approximately net zero average annual energy consumption. These strategies are particularly useful in the case of optimized solar buildings@ which include one or more of the following features: (a) passive solar design; (b) active systems for collection and control of solar energy (BIPV or BIPV/T systems@ solar thermal collectors@ motorized blinds); and (c) thermal energy storage systems (water tanks@ phase change material containers). At the supervisory control level@ prediction of future conditions can be employed to optimize the collection@ storage and utilization of solar and geothermal energy. At a lower control level@ predictive control assists in dealing with the discrepancies between the time constants of the building structure and its HVAC system@ allowing the prescribed set-points to be reached when desired. This paper presents results of simulations which model the performance of a net-zero energy solar demonstration house using anticipatory control techniques. A relatively simple thermal network model is used throughout the building's design and in the development of the control strategies.