OPTIMAL CONTROL OF AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM

Abstract

This paper presents an optimal method for control the functioning time of an air conditioning system that allows reducing the electrical consumption by maintaining thermal comforts. In this work, the minimizing of the electrical consumption of a house is adopted as objective function, and thermal comfort is taken as a primary constraint, thus the mathematical model of air conditioning is formulated. Then an optimal control method based on reducing the electrical consumption of a house equipped with air conditioning system by optimizing the operating time of the air conditioner is proposed. Subsequently, the simulation results show a significant reduction of the total consumption at the same time maintaining thermal comfort. The proposed optimal control strategy of air conditioning system is carried out in MATLAB/Simulink with satisfactory results for a house. The rest of the load (washing-machine, refrigerator, freezer, etc.) is assumed as a constant complementary charge. Simulation results show a significant reduction of the electrical consumption.

Keywords

• air conditioning
• optimization
• thermal comfort
• optimal control strategy