Michaël Kummert

A neural network controller for hydronic heating systems of solar buildings

An artificial neural network (ANN)-based controller for hydronic heating plants of buildings is presented. The controller has forecasting capabilities: it includes a meteorological module, forecasting the ambient temperature and solar irradiance, an indoor temperature predictor module, a supply temperature predictor module and an optimizing module for the water supply temperature. All ANN modules are based on the Feed Forward Back Propagation (FFBP) model. The operation of the controller has been tested experimentally, on a real-scale office building during real operating conditions. The operation results were compared to those of a conventional controller. The performance was also assessed via numerical simulation. The detailed thermal simulation tool for solar systems and buildings TRNSYS was used. Both experimental and numerical results showed that the expected percentage of energy savings with respect to a conventional controller is of about 15% under North European weather conditions.

Optimal heating control in a passive solar commercial building

A smart heating controller has a twofold objective: to save as much energy as possible while maintaining an acceptable comfort level in the building. Due to very large time constants in the building response, it has to anticipate internal and external disturbances. In the case of a passive solar commercial building, the need for anticipation is reinforced by important solar and internal gains. Indeed, large solar gains increase the energy savings potential but also the overheating risk. Optimal control theory presents an ideal formalism to solve this problem: its principle is to anticipate the building behaviour using a model and a forecasting of the disturbances in order to compute the control sequence that minimises a given cost function over the optimisation horizon. This cost function can combine comfort level and energy consumption. This paper presents the application of optimal control to auxiliary heating of a passive solar commercial building. Simulation-based and experimental results show that it can lead to significant energy savings while maintaining or improving the comfort level in this type of building.

Sub-hourly simulation of residential ground coupled heat pump systems

Residential Ground Coupled Heat Pump systems are usually characterised by an ON/OFF behaviour of the heat pump with typical cycling frequencies of 1—4 cycles per hour. The ground loop fluid pump has the same ON/OFF behaviour and the borehole heat exchanger operates either in full flow or no flow conditions. Typical hourly simulations of GCHP systems use steady-state models for the heat pump and the borehole fluid (transient models being used for buildings and heat transfer in the ground). This paper reviews the models used in typical hourly simulations as well as transient models that are available and compares the results obtained using the two classes of models within the TRNSYS simulation environment. Both the long-term energy performance and the optimum system design are compared. It is shown that using steady-state models leads to an overestimation of the energy use that ranges from a few percents with oversized borehole heat exchangers to 75% for undersized exchangers. A simple Life Cycle Cost analysis shows that using steady-state models can lead to selecting a very different design than the one that would have been selected using dynamic models.

Comparing vertical ground heat exchanger models

The main objective of this article is to establish a set of test cases for analytical verification and inter-model comparison of vertical ground heat exchanger (GHX) models used in building simulation programs. Several test cases are suggested. They range from steady-state heat rejection in a single borehole to varying hourly loads with relatively large yearly thermal imbalance in multiple borehole configurations. The usefulness of the proposed test cases is illustrated with different GHX models. This comparison exercise has shown that analytical one-dimensional (1D) models compare favourably well with three-dimensional (3D) models for relatively short-simulation periods, where axial effects are not significant. Cyclic heat rejection/collection tests proved to be useful to characterize the accuracy and the computational performance of different load aggregation algorithms. Finally, different spatial superposition methods have been compared for various bore field sizes and configurations and various loads.

A comparison of the UK Standard Assessment Procedure and detailed simulation of solar energy systems for dwellings

The drive to reduce worldwide carbon emissions that are directly associated with dwellings and to achieve a zero carbon home dictates that renewable energy technologies will have an increasingly large role in the built environment. The Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP), formulated by the Building Research Establishment (BRE), is the UK Governments approved methodology for assessing the energy ratings of dwellings. This article presents an evaluation of the advantage given to SAP ratings by the domestic installation of typical photovoltaic (PV) and solar domestic hot-water (SDHW) systems in the UK. Comparable PV and SDHW systems will also be simulated with more detailed modelling packages. Results suggest that calculation variances can exist between the SAP methodology and detailed simulation methods, especially for higher performance systems that deviate from the default efficiency parameters.

Optimized control strategies for solar district heating systems

Solar district heating (SDH) systems are a proven concept for the supply of space heating and/or domestic hot water using solar energy as the main heat source. SDH systems with a high solar fraction include seasonal thermal storage and various subsystems with different time scales that must be managed by the supervisory control system. This paper presents the development of optimized control strategies for the Drake Landing Solar Community in Okotoks (Alberta, Canada). The proposed strategies, based on the application of model predictive control concepts, aim to further reduce the use of auxiliary energy for heating (gas) while also reducing the pumping energy (electricity). Perfect forecasts for the weather and the SDH loads are assumed in the study and a detailed TRNSYS model is used. Results show that the primary energy consumption can be reduced by 5% by updating the supervisory control strategies.

Co-simulation between ESP-r and TRNSYS

The quest for innovative architectural designs and the development of novel and integrated energy conversion, storage, and distribution technologies presents a challenge for existing building performance simulation (BPS) tools. No single BPS tool offers sufficient capabilities and the flexibility to resolve all the possible design variants of interest. The development of a co-simulation between the ESP-r and TRNSYS simulation tools has been accomplished to address this need by enabling an integrated simulation approach that rigorously treats both building physics and energy systems. The design, verification, and demonstration of this new co-simulation environment are demonstrated in this paper.

Comparing control strategies using experimental and simulation results: Methodology and application to heating control of passive solar buildings

Different heating system controllers for passive solar buildings are compared on two different buildings. The performance criterion combines energy performance and thermal comfort using the “cost function” paradigm. The experimental facilities did not allow a direct experimental comparison by using two identical buildings. The controllers were implemented alternately in one building and a performance comparison was obtained in two ways: first by identifying short periods that have similar driving variables (weather conditions and building occupancy) and comparing the experimental results obtained in both cases. The second method mixes experiments and simulation using a well-tuned model of the building and its occupants. This paper discusses the results obtained using the above methods and shows that both methods give consistent estimates of the difference between controllers and the second method allows extrapolation of useful information from the limited data available.

Analysis of a combined photovoltaic–geothermal gas-fired absorption heat pump system in a Canadian climate

This study examines the technical feasibility of using a geothermal gas-fired absorption heat pump (A-GSHP) for space conditioning and domestic hot water heating in a Canadian climate. The A-GSHP is coupled to a photovoltaic (PV) system with battery storage intended to ensure the full autonomy of the heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system from the electric grid. The system is modelled using TRNSYS with standard models and a new performance-based A-GSHP model, which accounts for part-load operation. Results indicate that the coefficient of performance (COP) is equal to 1.12, 0.55 and 1.79 for heating only, cooling only and simultaneous cooling and domestic hot water (DHW) heating, respectively. A 13.5 kWp PV array and a 400 kWh battery storage are necessary to provide the electrical power required to operate the A-GSHP and the associated HVAC system at all times without importing electrical energy from the grid.

Development and numerical validation of a new model for walls with phase change materials implemented in TRNSYS

This paper presents a model of a wall with variable properties dedicated to modelling phase change materials (PCMs) in building envelopes. The model is implemented in the TRNSYS simulation tool and referred to as Type 3258. The 1-D conduction heat transfer equation is solved using an explicit finite-difference method coupled with an enthalpy method to consider the variable PCM thermal capacity. This model includes temperature-dependent thermal conductivity and PCM-specific effects like hysteresis and supercooling. The stability conditions are discussed and the algorithm implemented in TRNSYS is described. A numerical validation performed on wall test cases proposed by the International Energy Agency is presented, showing that the developed model is in agreement with reference models. The paper also discusses the impact of temporal and spatial discretization on the model performance. Modelling problems encountered when using an effective heat capacity method (compared to an enthalpy method) and when representing supercooling are also discussed.