Advanced Control Structure for Energy Management in Ground Coupled Heat Pump HVAC System

Over the last 15 years, computerized controls have become more and more common in our homes. The smart home looks at expanding the use of the computers into the difference parts of the home, creating a network that can be easily and conveniently controlled. The use of computer controls removes the need to actually flick a switch and allows elements of the home to respond automatically to the people living in it. Successful control and heating ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems is a primary concern in building project: in order to achieve the required comfort and energy efficiency goals, a lot of variables must be coordinated and kept at particular pre-designed operation points. The management control systems can be applied to try to achieve optimum settings for different operations in the complicated systems. To optimal settings must balance three aspects: (1) comfort, (2) energy efficiency, and (3) performance margins on order to be able to quickly adapt to unexpected disturbances. This work has used TRNSYS software package to model a HVAC system composed by a geothermal heat pump (GHP) and several fan-coils (FC) for a typical distribution of offices in the area of the Mediterranean Sea. In this model, a control structure has been designed using various configurations of cascade control to incorporate extra sensors and actuators in order to achieve PMV specifications and save energy.