Conference proceeding
Performance Assessment of a Model Predictive Controller for a Heat Pump in a Hardware-in-the-Loop Experimental Test Environment
ASHRAE transactions, v 131, pp 1377-1386
01 Jan 2025
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
To mitigate the effects of climate change, there has been an increased emphasis over the last decade on the adoption of intermittent renewable power production, as well as electrification of downstream consumer appliances. Subsequently, due to the large proportion of annual energy consumption which can be attributed to building space heating and cooling, the development and deployment of intelligent controls, including supervisory model predictive controllers (MPC) which enable high-efficiency electrically driven heat pump systems to shift their operation away from periods of high electricity demand while also maintaining the thermal comfort of building occupants, has become a popular topic within the smart building's community. However, to date, there have been few experimental demonstrations seeking to validate the performance of supervisory-level MPC to enable direct expansion (DX) variable speed heat pump systems to load shift through indirect manipulation of zone temperature setpoint. This study discusses the development and implementation of such an MPC. The MPC's design and the subsequent challenges of properly interfacing with a commercial off-the-shelf variable speed water-to-air heat pump's local controller are discussed. A case study utilizing a water-source heat pump (WSHP) hardware-in-the-loop experimental testbed is performed to quantify the MPC's performance relative to a baseline control algorithm during a representative summer day in Atlanta, GA. Results from this case study show that the MPC has the potential to reduce energy consumption and consumer cost by 8.5% and 18%, respectively. Conclusions and future work related to improving the MPC and further utilizing the HIL testbed are also provided.
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Details
- Title
- Performance Assessment of a Model Predictive Controller for a Heat Pump in a Hardware-in-the-Loop Experimental Test Environment
- Creators
- Caleb Calfa - Texas A&M Univ, College Stn, TX 77834 USAZhiyao Yang - Texas A&M Univ, College Stn, TX 77834 USAZhelun Chen - Drexel UniversityYicheng Li - Drexel UniversityYangyang Fu - Texas A&M Univ, College Stn, TX 77834 USAZheng O'Neill - Texas A&M Univ, J Mike Walker 66 Dept Mech Engn, College Stn, TX USAJin Wen - Drexel UniversityASHRAE
- Publication Details
- ASHRAE transactions, v 131, pp 1377-1386
- Series
- ASHRAE Transactions
- Publisher
- Amer Soc Heating, Refrigerating And Air-Conditioning Engs
- Number of pages
- 10
- Grant note
- DE-EE0009153 / Building Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy through the Emerging Technologies program; United States Department of Energy (DOE)
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001605656600156
- Other Identifier
- 991022156300204721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Construction & Building Technology
- Engineering, Mechanical