Controlling Switchable Electrochromic Glazing for Energy Savings, Visual Comfort and Thermal Comfort: A Model Predictive Control

Published: 15 December 2021| Version 1 | DOI: 10.17632/9pj3dk63bm.1
Contributor:
Abolfazl Ganji

Description

Dynamic façades play an important role in enhancing the overall performance of buildings: they respond to the environmental conditions and adjust the amount of transmitted solar radiation. This paper proposes a simulation-based framework to evaluate the energy and comfort performance of different control strategies for switchable electrochromic glazing (EC). The presented method shows the impact of a model predictive control (MPC) on energy savings and on visual and thermal comfort for different orientations compared to other strategies. Besides manual operation and conventional rule-based controls, the benchmark in this study was a simulation-based control (multi-objective penalty-based control) with optimal performance. The hourly results of various control cases were analyzed based on the established performance indicators and criteria. The cumulative annual results show the capabilities and limitations of each control strategy for an EC glazing. For a temperate climate (Mannheim, Germany), results showed that an MPC for EC glazing provides visual and thermal comfort while saving energy of up to 14%, 37%, 37%, and 34% respectively for facing north, east, south, and west relative to the base-case.

Files

Steps to reproduce

1. The excel file includes all the annual results of simulation are available on tab "Appendix". The results are visualized in tab "Graphs" too. 2. The .txt files are the control profiles for different strategies and different orientations: for instance G1__W_90_49.52-8.55_TS20-27_EC_MPCtrl.txt includes the MPC control profile for Mannheim (lat., long. 49.52, 8.55) for west-facing façade (W_90), when setpoint temperature were 20°C for heating and 27°C for cooling (TS20-27). 3. The .out files are the hourly simulation results from TRNSYS for different strategies and different orientations: for instance G1__W_90_49.52-8.55_TS20-27_EC_MPCtrl.out includes the results of a west-facing façade (W_90) under MPC control for Mannheim (lat., long. 49.52, 8.55), when setpoint temperature were 20°C for heating and 27°C for cooling (TS20-27).

Institutions

Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern

Categories

Energy Saving in Building, Building Thermal Comfort, Glare, Shading

Licence