Indoor temperature regulation and energy consumption inside a working office in building system using a predictive functional control

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a novel control approach for indoor temperature regulation in tertiary buildings, based on predictive functional control. The main control objective is to reduce the energy consumption while ensuring the desired thermal comfort of the occupants. The novelty of this approach may perform in the presence of disturbances such occupancy profile, electrical equipment, indoor temperature, surrounding temperatures and weather data. Predictive functional control algorithm consists in using a dynamic model of the process inside the controller in real time in order to anticipate the future behavior of the system. The proposed method is successfully illustrated using an example of temperature control of a working office which is implemented in the SIMBAD toolbox (SIMulator of Buildings and Devices) integrated into the Matlab/Simulink environment. The proposed control compromises a class of control algorithms that utilizes an online process model to optimize the future response of a plant. The efficiency of the proposed control has been validated using good performance indexes for various scenarios. Simulation results revealed a good level of comfort is ensured with a minimum energy (3.2015 kWh), temperature regulation with a very low error, a high level of comfort is generated in the office room during working hours. Thus, demonstrating the validity and effectiveness of this control strategy.

KEYWORDS:

• Building thermal comfort
• energy consumption
• building hvac control
• predictive functional control
• energy saving in building

Nomenclature

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nassima Ouali

NASSIMA OUALI received the master's degree in automation from the University of Bejaia, Algeria, in 2018, where she is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree. Her research interests include electrical machines design, control, and renewable energy systems.

Hocine Lehouche

HOCINE LEHOUCHE is currently a full Professor of automation and electrical engineering since 2003 with the Automation, Telecommunication, and Electronics Department, University of Bejaia. His research interest includes electrical machines design and control.

Youcef Belkhier

YOUCEF BELKHIER received his Master’s degreein automatic from the University of Bejaia, Algeria, in 2017 and a PhD from the same university in 2021. He currently works as a researcher at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague. His research interests include designing and testing electrical machines and their control, renewable energy systems, and the Internet of Things.

Abdelyazid Achour

ABDELYAZID ACHOUR received the Magister degree from the Polytechnic Military School (EMP), Algeria, in 1999, and the Ph.D. degree from Bejaia University, Algeria, in 2009. He is currently a full Professor of automatic and electrical engineering with the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Bejaia. His research interest includes electrical machines design and control.