Prediction of Heating Load for Optimum Heat Supply in Apartment Building

It is necessary to predict the heating load in order to determine the optimal scheduling control of district heating systems. Heating loads are affected by many complex parameters, and therefore, it is necessary to develop an efficient, flexible, and easy to use prediction method for the heating load. In this study, simple specifications included in a building design document and the estimated temperature and humidity are used to predict the heating load on the next day. To validate the performance of the proposed method, heating load data measured from a benchmark district heating system are compared with the predicted results. The predicted outdoor temperature and humidity show a variation trend that agrees with the measured data. The predicted heating loads show good agreement with the measured hourly, daily, and monthly loads. During the heating period, the monthly load error was estimated to be 4.68%.