Optimal control and operation of a GSHP system for heating and cooling in an office building

Abstract

Ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems are widely considered as being among the most efficient heating and cooling renewable technologies currently available. Nevertheless, both an optimal design of components and an optimal operation of the system as a whole become crutial in order to contribute to an attenuation of the global warming potential of this kind of installations. The overall objective of this research work is to perform the control and energy optimization of an experimental GSHP system installed at the Universitat Politècnica de València, located in València (Spain), making the control system adaptive to the thermal demand of the building and to the climate conditions. The optimization of any system requires a comprehensive study of its behaviour, by means of a thorough analysis of all the variables and parameters implied on its performance. Therefore, as a first step, both the short-term and long-term performance based on the experimental data collected at the installation will be analyzed. Finally, the different control strategies that have been developed, implemented and experimentally tested in the system will be described. These strategies’ focus is not in optimizing the performance of each individual component, but in optimizing the energy performance of the system working as a whole, while keeping the user comfort. Experimental results for a one-year operation period demonstrate important energy savings, up to 35% in the summer season and 53% in the winter season.