Event-driven optimal control of complex HVAC systems based on COP·mins

This paper tries to answer the question: in what condition an optimization should be done? Previous methods use “time” or “PLR” to trigger the control actions. However, they are both indirect performance indicators. This paper proposes a direct performance indicator, COP·mins, based on which a COP·mins-based event-driven optimal control strategy was developed. The energy performance and computational load of different optimization strategies were compared by simulations. Result shows that the energy and computational savings of the proposed method are higher than time-driven and PLR-based event-driven methods. Meanwhile, it can enable the robustness under various load types. COP·mins is also a general parameter and is applicable in other systems where COP is the main concern. It is found that event definitions are critical in event-driven optimal control.