Title: HVAC control strategies for thermal comfort and indoor air quality

Authors: Jiaming Li, Josh Wall, Glenn Platt

Addresses: CSIRO ICT Centre, Corner of Vimiera and Pembroke Roads, Marsfield, NSW 2122, Australia. ' CSIRO Energy Technology, Steel River Estate, 10 Murray Dwyer Circuit, Mayfield West, NSW 2304, Australia. ' CSIRO Energy Technology, Steel River Estate, 10 Murray Dwyer Circuit, Mayfield West, NSW 2304, Australia

Abstract: With the building sector contributing over 30% of global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, sustainable building technologies have been identified as one of the most cost-effective approaches for improving energy efficiency and reducing our carbon footprint on the environment. This paper presents two-HVAC control strategies to maintain adequate thermal comfort and indoor air quality with least energy consumption. One is based on virtual comfort sensing, which is an informative software tool that provides a means for informing building occupants about key indicators relating to building energy performance. Another control strategy, which is based on monitoring and modelling of indoor CO₂ concentration, is employed to respond to the changes of indoor CO₂ generation through appropriate adjustment of ventilation rates, i.e., the rate of ventilation is modulated over time based on the signals from indoor CO₂ concentration. In particular, the paper focuses on the development of adaptive indoor air quality model based on soft real-time indoor occupant prediction for implementing control strategies. This dynamic indoor air quality model is useful for control strategies that require knowledge of the dynamic characteristics of HVAC systems.

Keywords: HVAC control; thermal comfort; indoor air quality; IAQ; sensor-based ventilation; demand-controlled ventilation; DCV; modelling; indoor CO2 concentration; carbon dioxide; heating; air conditioning; carbon emissions; sustainability; sustainable development; energy consumption; virtual comfort sensing; building energy performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAMECHS.2011.040160

International Journal of Advanced Mechatronic Systems, 2011 Vol.3 No.1, pp.24 - 32

Published online: 18 Mar 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article