7,203 research outputs found
Occupancy based demand response HVAC control strategy,”
Abstract Heating, cooling and ventilation accounts for 30% energy usage and for 50% of the electricity usage in the United States. Currently, most modern buildings still condition rooms assuming maximum occupancy rather than actual usage. As a result, rooms are often over-conditioned needlessly. This paper proposes an HVAC control strategy based on occupancy prediction and real time occupancy monitoring via a sensor network of cameras. This strategy shows 20.0% potential energy savings while still maintaining ASHRAE building standards
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System-level key performance indicators for building performance evaluation
Quantifying building energy performance through the development and use of key performance indicators (KPIs) is an essential step in achieving energy saving goals in both new and existing buildings. Current methods used to evaluate improvements, however, are not well represented at the system-level (e.g., lighting, plug-loads, HVAC, service water heating). Instead, they are typically only either measured at the whole building level (e.g., energy use intensity) or at the equipment level (e.g., chiller efficiency coefficient of performance (COP)) with limited insights for benchmarking and diagnosing deviations in performance of aggregated equipment that delivers a specific service to a building (e.g., space heating, lighting). The increasing installation of sensors and meters in buildings makes the evaluation of building performance at the system level more feasible through improved data collection. Leveraging this opportunity, this study introduces a set of system-level KPIs, which cover four major end-use systems in buildings: lighting, MELs (Miscellaneous Electric Loads, aka plug loads), HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning), and SWH (service water heating), and their eleven subsystems. The system KPIs are formulated in a new context to represent various types of performance, including energy use, peak demand, load shape, occupant thermal comfort and visual comfort, ventilation, and water use. This paper also presents a database of system KPIs using the EnergyPlus simulation results of 16 USDOE prototype commercial building models across four vintages and five climate zones. These system KPIs, although originally developed for office buildings, can be applied to other building types with some adjustment or extension. Potential applications of system KPIs for system performance benchmarking and diagnostics, code compliance, and measurement and verification are discussed
Buildings-to-Grid Integration Framework
This paper puts forth a mathematical framework for Buildings-to-Grid (BtG)
integration in smart cities. The framework explicitly couples power grid and
building's control actions and operational decisions, and can be utilized by
buildings and power grids operators to simultaneously optimize their
performance. Simplified dynamics of building clusters and building-integrated
power networks with algebraic equations are presented---both operating at
different time-scales. A model predictive control (MPC)-based algorithm that
formulates the BtG integration and accounts for the time-scale discrepancy is
developed. The formulation captures dynamic and algebraic power flow
constraints of power networks and is shown to be numerically advantageous. The
paper analytically establishes that the BtG integration yields a reduced total
system cost in comparison with decoupled designs where grid and building
operators determine their controls separately. The developed framework is
tested on standard power networks that include thousands of buildings modeled
using industrial data. Case studies demonstrate building energy savings and
significant frequency regulation, while these findings carry over in network
simulations with nonlinear power flows and mismatch in building model
parameters. Finally, simulations indicate that the performance does not
significantly worsen when there is uncertainty in the forecasted weather and
base load conditions.Comment: In Press, IEEE Transactions on Smart Gri
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