Hvac Control and Comfortmanagement in Non-residential Buildings

In France, non-residential buildings account for a significant part in energy consumption. Moreover, a large part of this consumption is due to Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems, which are generally badly handled. So, the present work deals with an efficient approach allowing energy consumption to be minimized while ensuring thermal comfort. In this sense, a predictive control strategy is proposed for existing zoned HVAC systems considering the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) index as a thermal comfort indicator. In order to test the developped strategy in simulation, a non-residential building located in Perpignan (south of France) has been modelled using the EnergyPlusTM software. The aim is to limit the times during which the HVAC sub-system is turned on and to ensure a satisfactory thermal comfort during working time. This approach, computationally tractable, allows thermal comfort requirements to be met without wasting energy.