Energy Reports (Apr 2022)
Optimal switching control of an air to air heat pump operating under variable time-based electricity pricing
Abstract
The electrical energy related expenditure in residential buildings may become substantial when it comes to peak pricing with regards to the Time-of-Use (TOU) tariff structure. Effective energy management strategies should be implemented at the large residential buildings scale to conserve energy, which in turn, can assist in relieving the burden on the national energy grid. This paper presents an optimal switching control strategy for an air to air heat pump used to provide space heating to a typical two-bedroom residential building in which two occupants are residing, is presented. Accurate and reliable data, which is obtained from a local weather station, is applied to the established model. The main purpose of this paper is to develop an optimal control algorithm, which minimizes the running energy cost of the air to air heat pump under time-based pricing and the level of discomfort with regards to the desired building temperature. Additionally, various exogenous disturbances, such as the ambient temperature, amount of occupants present and the amount of lights switched on during each moment in time, are taken into account. The thermostat-based control of an air to air heat pump which is adopted as the first baseline, illustrates a daily electrical energy cost of USD 4.8. The timer with thermostat-based control method which is adopted as the second baseline illustrates a daily electrical energy cost of USD 4.78. The optimal switching control of an air to air heat pump illustrates a daily electrical energy cost of USD 4.48. Therefore, the optimal switching control model achieved a 6.67% cost savings in electricity compared to the first baseline and a 6.28% cost savings in electricity to the second baseline.
