Intelligent Controller for Thermal Comfort Management in Buildings

Abstract

This paper presents a controller, with heuristic intelligence, which focuses on optimizing the occupants' thermal comfort in a building, by judiciously adjusting the temperature set-points during HVAC system operation. The selection of temperature set-points is formulated as an optimization problem, using suitable cost functions, wherein occupant specified comfort parameters are taken as constraints. The performance of the controller is examined by implementing the control algorithm on a thermal model of a real building, located in New Zealand, developed in EnergyPlus™. Simulation results are compared with that of a PI controller during two seasonal extremes of New Zealand, to further demonstrate the efficacy of proposed controller. The results of investigation show a consistent overall performance of the controller. An annual energy saving of 212.9MW h is achieved without compromising the occupants' thermal comfort.