TY - JOUR
T1 - A heat-measurement-free strategy for Economic Model Predictive Control of hydronic radiators
AU - Knudsen, Michael Dahl
AU - Fiorentini, Massimo
AU - Petersen, Steffen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024
PY - 2024/11/15
Y1 - 2024/11/15
N2 - Cost-efficient measurement of room-level heat output from hydronic radiators is a major barrier to large-scale implementation of Economic Model Predictive Control (EMPC) in residential space heating for demand-side management. This paper therefore presents a novel EMPC strategy for hydronic radiators that relies on measurements of radiator pipe temperatures as a proxy for the radiator heat output, thus eliminating the need for costly flow-based meters at each radiator in a building. Simulation-based experiments indicate that the proposed proxy-based EMPC matches the performance of its heat-based counterpart. The proxy-based EMPC achieved a 16.6 % cost reduction compared to the heat-based EMPC's 16.8 %, with no comfort violations in both cases. Furthermore, the strategy shows resilience towards uncertainties in the user-estimated radiator exponent and maximum heating capacity. The proposed EMPC scheme also allows system operators to fine-tune the balance between cost savings and return temperatures using the proxy's upper limit. The findings presented in this paper suggest that the proposed proxy-based EMPC scheme provides a practical pathway for broader applications of EMPC in hydronic-based space heating with the prospect of unlocking significant load shifting potential, cost savings for end-users, and enhanced efficiency in individual and collective energy systems.
AB - Cost-efficient measurement of room-level heat output from hydronic radiators is a major barrier to large-scale implementation of Economic Model Predictive Control (EMPC) in residential space heating for demand-side management. This paper therefore presents a novel EMPC strategy for hydronic radiators that relies on measurements of radiator pipe temperatures as a proxy for the radiator heat output, thus eliminating the need for costly flow-based meters at each radiator in a building. Simulation-based experiments indicate that the proposed proxy-based EMPC matches the performance of its heat-based counterpart. The proxy-based EMPC achieved a 16.6 % cost reduction compared to the heat-based EMPC's 16.8 %, with no comfort violations in both cases. Furthermore, the strategy shows resilience towards uncertainties in the user-estimated radiator exponent and maximum heating capacity. The proposed EMPC scheme also allows system operators to fine-tune the balance between cost savings and return temperatures using the proxy's upper limit. The findings presented in this paper suggest that the proposed proxy-based EMPC scheme provides a practical pathway for broader applications of EMPC in hydronic-based space heating with the prospect of unlocking significant load shifting potential, cost savings for end-users, and enhanced efficiency in individual and collective energy systems.
KW - Co-simulations
KW - Economic model predictive control
KW - Hydronic radiators
KW - Load-shifting
KW - Room-level heating
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85203423462&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jobe.2024.110694
DO - 10.1016/j.jobe.2024.110694
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85203423462
SN - 2352-7102
VL - 97
JO - Journal of Building Engineering
JF - Journal of Building Engineering
M1 - 110694
ER -