IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v275y2020ics0306261920308369.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Model predictive control for supervising multiple rooftop unit economizers to fully leverage free cooling energy resource

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Donghun
  • Braun, James E.

Abstract

“Free cooling” with cool outside air can meet or reduce a building’s cooling loads in an energy efficient manner when conditions are favorable. For rooftop air conditioning units (RTUs), this is achieved with air-side economizers that are integrated with the packaged RTU. However, current RTU economizers are independently controlled at the unit level and may not fully leverage the free resource for economic benefit especially when multiple units serve a common zone of a building, such as in retail stores. That is, the independent control of multiple RTUs could lead to some units operating with mechanical cooling even when the outdoor air temperature or enthalpy is low enough to meet the load with economizer cooling. This paper presents a model-predictive control (MPC) approach to optimally supervise multiple RTUs in order to fully utilize the free cooling resource. The algorithm is applied to the evaluation of the energy savings potential for a case study building served by four identical RTUs under various climate zones over a cooling season.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Donghun & Braun, James E., 2020. "Model predictive control for supervising multiple rooftop unit economizers to fully leverage free cooling energy resource," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:275:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920308369
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115324
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920308369
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115324?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seem, J.E. & House, J.M., 2010. "Development and evaluation of optimization-based air economizer strategies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 910-924, March.
    2. Bulut, Hüsamettin & Aktacir, Mehmet Azmi, 2011. "Determination of free cooling potential: A case study for Istanbul, Turkey," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 680-689, March.
    3. Wang, Weimin & Katipamula, Srinivas & Ngo, Hung & Underhill, Ronald & Taasevigen, Danny & Lutes, Robert, 2015. "Field evaluation of advanced controls for the retrofit of packaged air conditioners and heat pumps," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 344-351.
    4. Zhang, Xiangyu & Pipattanasomporn, Manisa & Rahman, Saifur, 2017. "A self-learning algorithm for coordinated control of rooftop units in small- and medium-sized commercial buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1034-1049.
    5. Zmeureanu, Radu, 1989. "A case study of energy savings due to the economizer system in Montreal," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 14(9), pages 537-544.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Goopyo Hong & Chul Kim & Jun Hong, 2020. "Energy Conservation Potential of Economizer Controls Using Optimal Outdoor Air Fraction Based on Field Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-19, September.
    2. Deng, Zhipeng & Wang, Xuezheng & Dong, Bing, 2023. "Quantum computing for future real-time building HVAC controls," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Durand-Estebe, Baptiste & Le Bot, Cédric & Mancos, Jean Nicolas & Arquis, Eric, 2014. "Simulation of a temperature adaptive control strategy for an IWSE economizer in a data center," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 45-56.
    2. Cui, Can & Zhang, Xin & Cai, Wenjian, 2020. "An energy-saving oriented air balancing method for demand controlled ventilation systems with branch and black-box model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    3. Tejeda De La Cruz, Alberto & Riviere, Philippe & Marchio, Dominique & Cauret, Odile & Milu, Anamaria, 2017. "Hardware in the loop test bench using Modelica: A platform to test and improve the control of heating systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 107-120.
    4. Dai, Jun & Das, Diganta & Pecht, Michael, 2012. "Prognostics-based risk mitigation for telecom equipment under free air cooling conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 423-429.
    5. Hui, Hongxun & Ding, Yi & Liu, Weidong & Lin, You & Song, Yonghua, 2017. "Operating reserve evaluation of aggregated air conditioners," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 218-228.
    6. Hui, Hongxun & Ding, Yi & Song, Yonghua & Rahman, Saifur, 2019. "Modeling and control of flexible loads for frequency regulation services considering compensation of communication latency and detection error," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 161-174.
    7. Wang, Cuiling & Wang, Baolong & Cui, Mengdi & Wei, Falin, 2023. "Optimal fresh-air utilization strategy for constant temperature and humidity air-conditioning system based on isocost line," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PD).
    8. Lim, Dae Kyu & Ahn, Byoung Ha & Jeong, Ji Hwan, 2018. "Method to control an air conditioner by directly measuring the relative humidity of indoor air to improve the comfort and energy efficiency," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 290-299.
    9. Hui, Hongxun & Chen, Yulin & Yang, Shaohua & Zhang, Hongcai & Jiang, Tao, 2022. "Coordination control of distributed generators and load resources for frequency restoration in isolated urban microgrids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    10. Hui, Hongxun & Ding, Yi & Song, Yonghua, 2020. "Adaptive time-delay control of flexible loads in power systems facing accidental outages," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    11. Tejero-González, Ana & Andrés-Chicote, Manuel & García-Ibáñez, Paola & Velasco-Gómez, Eloy & Rey-Martínez, Francisco Javier, 2016. "Assessing the applicability of passive cooling and heating techniques through climate factors: An overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 727-742.
    12. da Fonseca, André L.A. & Chvatal, Karin M.S. & Fernandes, Ricardo A.S., 2021. "Thermal comfort maintenance in demand response programs: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    13. Tang, Hong & Wang, Shengwei & Li, Hangxin, 2021. "Flexibility categorization, sources, capabilities and technologies for energy-flexible and grid-responsive buildings: State-of-the-art and future perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    14. Siriwardana, Jayantha & Jayasekara, Saliya & Halgamuge, Saman K., 2013. "Potential of air-side economizers for data center cooling: A case study for key Australian cities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 207-219.
    15. Chenfei Liu & Stephen Sharples & Haniyeh Mohammadpourkarbasi, 2023. "A Review of Building Energy Retrofit Measures, Passive Design Strategies and Building Regulation for the Low Carbon Development of Existing Dwellings in the Hot Summer–Cold Winter Region of China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-25, May.
    16. Habibi Khalaj, Ali & Scherer, Thomas & K. Halgamuge, Saman, 2016. "Energy, environmental and economical saving potential of data centers with various economizers across Australia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1528-1549.
    17. Fiorentini, Massimo & Tartarini, Federico & Ledo Gomis, Laia & Daly, Daniel & Cooper, Paul, 2019. "Development of an enthalpy-based index to assess climatic potential for ventilative cooling of buildings: An Australian example," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    18. Zhang, Sheng & Ai, Zhengtao & Lin, Zhang, 2021. "Novel demand-controlled optimization of constant-air-volume mechanical ventilation for indoor air quality, durability and energy saving," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    19. Dai, Jun & Das, Diganta & Ohadi, Michael & Pecht, Michael, 2013. "Reliability risk mitigation of free air cooling through prognostics and health management," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 104-112.
    20. Cai, Mengmeng & Pipattanasomporn, Manisa & Rahman, Saifur, 2019. "Day-ahead building-level load forecasts using deep learning vs. traditional time-series techniques," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1078-1088.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:275:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920308369. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.