Experimental Long-Term Investigation of Model Predictive Heat Pump Control in Residential Buildings with Photovoltaic Power Generation

Abstract

This article presents a 125-day experiment to investigate model predictive heat pump control. The experiment was performed in two parallel operated systems with identical components during the heating season. One of the systems was operated by a standard controller and thus represented a reference to evaluate the model predictive control. Both test rigs were heated by an air-source heat pump which is influenced by real weather conditions. A single-family house model depending on weather measurement data ensured a realistic heat consumption in the test rigs. The adapted model predictive control algorithm aimed to minimize the operational costs of the heat pump. The evaluation of the measurement results showed that the electrical energy demand of the heat pump can be reduced and the coefficient of performance can be increased by applying the model predictive controller. Furthermore, the self-consumption of photovoltaic electricity, which is calculated by means of a photovoltaic model and global radiation measurement data, was more than doubled. Consequently, the energy costs of heat pump operation were reduced by 9.0% in comparison to the reference and assuming German energy prices. The results were further compared to the scientific literature and short-term measurements were performed with the same experimental setup. The dependence of the measurement results on the weather conditions and the weather forecasting quality are shown. It was found that the duration of experiments should be as long as possible for a comprehensive evaluation of the model predictive control potential.

Reducing CO2 Emissions for PV-CHP Hybrid Systems by Using a Hierarchical Control Algorithm

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Demonstration of Optimal Scheduling for a Building Heat Pump System Using Economic-MPC

“…This poses another technical challenge due to the varying weather conditions and user profiles. Therefore, to ensure identical boundary conditions and external input parameters as much as possible, many experimental comparison studies have taken place in controlled laboratory environments, such as a 125-day experiment on MPC for heat pumps in a single-family house lab environment showing a 9% cost reduction in comparison to a conventional controller [17]. Further experimental studies in lab environments can be found in [18].…”

The Economic Effects of New Patterns of Energy Efficiency and Heat Sources in Rural Single-Family Houses in Poland

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