Optimal Building Energy Management: Part II—Control

In this paper, the authors report on the advantages that an optimal control strategy can bring in the context of building energy management. In Part I, low-order dynamic models were found to be suitable to fit low-frequency input-output data: RC network models have been established for two types of buildings. In Part II, these dynamic models are used to compute optimal control laws of the inputs. These laws take into account time-varying conditions such as cycling energy rate, intermittent occupancy, and external disturbances through a deterministic approach. The chose of the model and the criterion to be minimized by the optimal control are two interrelated crucial points. Special emphasis is put on the accuracy of the reduced models in relation to the input data frequencies.