Contributions of predictive control for thermal regulation in buildings

In this paper we propose a new control method for a single room heating system in order to minimize energy consumption without reducing the occupants comfort. To obtain this, a predictive control law was used to exploit the future occupation knowledge of the room, but its basic principles had to be tailored to reach the best compromise between comfort and consumption. The method was applied to an electric heating system, and the validity and performance of the proposed control system have been shown by various simulations, using the SIMBAD toolbox. © 2010 Lavoisier, Paris.