The control strategies presented here have assumed perfect knowledge of future conditions. It is desirable to incorporate modelling of “imperfect” forecasts for these events, and statistical uncertainty as an element in the decision. A statistical analysis of historical weather data could be used to study the probability of having a series of cloudy days, and could therefore be used as a decision-making tool in sizing a TES reservoir and the backup system. For example, this could help to decide what tank size is large enough to provide heat over 3 days, one week, etc., and the likelihood of that event. Other important aspects to take into account in the development of predictive control strategies are load management and the use of several operative temperatures throughout the day. On account of the different time scales involved, effective local loop control should also be emphasized to achieve the goals established by the supervisory control strategy. So far, a full house simulation has been used, but a simplified model (based on transfer functions) [9] could be implemented in order to apply techniques such as model predictive control (MPC).

Finally, simulations using several zones are needed to properly evaluate thermal comfort and its relation to handling passive thermal storage. Although these strategies have been applied to a particular solar house, the idea of balancing active and passive storage has general validity.

4. Acknowledgements

Financial support of this work was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada through the Solar Buildings Research Network (SBRN). Other SBRN partners include: Natural Resources Canada, which funded the BIPV/T system through the TEAM (Technology Early Action Measures) program; CMHC, which conducted the EQuilibrium demonstration program; and Hydro Quebec, which participates in the monitoring of the house. We would like to thank Quebec’s Agence de l’Efficacite Energetique for their valuable contribution to this project. We would like to thank Sevag Pogharian, developer of the ANZEH project. The first author would like to thank the financial support of NSERC through a CGS D2 Alexander Graham Bell Graduate Scholarship. We would like to express our gratitude to Andre Fry (Concept-R), Jocelyn Harel (Regulvar) and Claude Agouri (Air Techni) for their contribution of ideas.

References

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