SustainableCitiesandSociety6(2013)16–21

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SustainableCitiesandSociety

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Multi-zonebuildingenergymanagementusingintelligentcontrolandoptimization

RuiYang,LingfengWang

DepartmentofElectricalEngineeringandComputerScience,TheUniversityofToledo,2801W.BancroftSt.,Toledo,OH43606,USA

article

info

abstract

Keywords:

BuildingenergymanagementMulti-zonebuildingmodelMulti-agentsystem

Intelligentbuildingsareatrendofnext-generation’sbuildings,whichfacilitateintelligentcontrolofthebuildingtoful lloccupants’comfortdemands.Theprimaryobjectiveinbuildingcontrolistoachieveacomfortablebuildingenvironmentwithhighenergyef ciency.Bydividingthewholebuildingintoseveralzones,amulti-zonebuildingmodelisbuiltfordevelopinganeffectiveenergymanagementscheme.Thisstudyproposesamulti-agentcontrolsystemcoupledwithanintelligentoptimizerforintelligentbuildingcontrol.Particleswarmoptimization(PSO)isutilizedtooptimizethebuildingenergymanagementbyenhancingtheintelligenceofthemulti-zonebuildingduringitsoperations.Acasestudyofmulti-zonebuildingcontroliscarriedoutandthecorrespondingsimulationresultsarepresentedinthispaper.

©2012ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved.

1.Introduction

Intelligentbuildingsareatypeofnovelbuildingswhichuseadvancedcomputertechnologiestoeffectivelycontrolthebuildingfacilitiesandprovideaproductiveandcost-effectiveenvironment(Sharples,Callaghan,&Clarke,1999).Themainobjectivesinintel-ligentbuildingdesignsaretoincreasesatisfactionofoccupantsandreducetheenergyconsumption(Clements-Croome,2004).Intelligentbuildingscreateacomfortableandproductiveenviron-mentforoccupantsandimprovetheoperationalenergy-ef ciency.Designinganintelligentbuildingdemandsacarefulconsiderationofenvironmentalfactorsthatmayaffectoccupants’comfort,well-beingandproductivity(Duangsuwan&Kecheng,2008).Thermalcomfort,visualcomfort,andindoorairquality(IAQ)arethethreebasicfactorsthatdeterminetheenvironmentalconditionsinabuilding(Dounis&Caraiscos,2009).Thermalcomfortinaroomisdeterminedbytheindoortemperatureandcanbemeasuredusingtemperaturesensors.Illuminationlevelcanbetakenasanindexforvisualcomfortcontrol.Indoorairqualitycanbeimprovedbytheventilationsystemandgenerallythecarbondioxideconcen-trationservesasanindexformeasuringtheIAQ.Tomonitorandcontroltheentirebuildingenergyconsumptioncontinuouslyaswellasmaintaintheoccupant’scomforteffectively,numeroussen-sors,actuatorsandcontrolunitscanbeinterconnectedtogethertoformactuallyareal-timesensornetwork.Byemployingrenewableenergysources,buildingscanbecomeenvironmentallyfriendly.

Correspondingauthor.Tel.:+14195308154;fax:+14195308146.

E-mailaddresses:Lingfeng.Wang@utoledo.edu,l.f.wang@ieee.org(L.Wang).

Suchbuildingscanbeseenasmicro-gridssincedistributedgen-eration,distributedstorage,andcontrollableloadsareallinvolved(Jiang,2006).Theoverallmicro-gridsystemcanbeconnectedtoanddisconnectedfromtheupstreamutilitygridaccordingtothecurrentoperatingconditioninordertominimizethedisruptiontothecontrollableloads(Hatziargyriou,2008).Thepaperwilldis-cusstheintelligentcontrolofbuildingswhicharesuppliedfromdistributedenergyresourceswhenislandedfromtheutilitygrid.

Inmulti-zonebuildingmodeling,abuildingisrepresentedasanetworkofzones(Tan,&Glicksman,2005).Azonede nesanairvolumeinwhichthespacesharesuniformenvironmentalcon-ditions.Ingeneral,eachroominabuildingcanbede nedasazone.However,multipleroomscanbecombinedandconsideredasonezoneiftheypossesssimilarenvironmentalconditions;andonespacemaybedividedintoseveralzonesiftheenvironmentalconditionsarenotuniforminaspace.

Inthisstudy,amulti-agentsystemisdesignedtocontrolthebuildingfacilitiesinordertoachieveabalancebetweentheenergyef ciencyandoccupants’comfort(Logenthiran,Srinivasan,&Wong,2008).Multi-agentsystemsarecomposedoftwoormoreagents.Anagentiscapableofmakingdecisionsautonomously,tak-ingappropriateactions,andinteractingwitheachothertoachievetheoverallcontrolgoal.Anintelligentagenthasseveralsigni cantcharacteristicsincludingpro-activity,reactivityandsocialability,sothatitisabletoactindependentlywhilealsobeingabletocoop-eratewithothers(Weiss,1999).Thispaperpresentshowtheagentscooperatewitheachothertocontrolthebuildinginanintelligentmanner.Inaddition,particleswarmoptimization(PSO)algorithm(Shi&Eberhart,1998)isembeddedinthecontrolsystemforopti-mizingthebuildingenergymanagement.

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