HVAC system with predictive airside control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Commercial HVAC systems face challenges in deploying model predictive control (MPC) due to the complexity of managing large numbers of building zones and the increasing energy costs associated with airside equipment, which are often overlooked in existing optimization techniques.
Innovation Solution
A distributed HVAC system incorporating a high-level MPC and low-level airside MPCs to optimize both airside and waterside power consumption, generating optimal load profiles and temperature setpoints to minimize total energy cost, while considering airside and waterside system interactions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If a single, combined control system is used for campus-wide HVAC optimization, then comprehensive energy cost optimization is achieved, but the optimization problem becomes too large to solve in real time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the campus-wide HVAC system into multiple independent building-level control systems. Each building solves its own optimization problem separately, reducing the overall computational burden. The segmentation allows parallel processing of optimization problems across multiple buildings, making real-time solution feasible while still achieving comprehensive energy cost optimization through coordinated control strategies.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the airside and waterside optimization problems into a single integrated building-level optimization framework. This combination allows the system to simultaneously optimize both airside equipment (fans, air handlers) and waterside equipment (chillers, pumps) while considering their interactions, thereby achieving comprehensive energy cost reduction without requiring a prohibitively complex campus-wide centralized system.
2Loss of energy
If existing optimization techniques focus only on waterside equipment, then chiller and pump energy costs are optimized, but airside equipment costs are neglected despite increasing significance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal building-level optimization framework that simultaneously handles both airside and waterside equipment optimization. This multi-functional approach allows the same control system to optimize chiller and pump operations while also optimizing fan and air handler operations, adapting to the changing significance of different equipment types and achieving comprehensive energy cost reduction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary integration of airside and waterside optimization models before implementing control actions. By combining the optimization problems and solving them together in advance, the system anticipates the interactions between airside and waterside equipment, enabling coordinated control decisions that reduce total energy costs rather than optimizing each subsystem independently.
Data Source
AI summary
A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building includes airside HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces and one or more controllers. The one or more controllers are configured to generate airside energy targets for the one or more building spaces using a heat transfer model that defines a relationship between the airside energy targets, a temperature of the one or more building spaces, and a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces. The one or more controllers are configured to control the airside HVAC equipment in accordance with the airside energy targets.