Comparison of control approaches for variable speed air source heat pumps considering time variable electricity prices and PV

The influence of different control strategies and boundary conditions on heat pump system performance are investigated in this study and the trade-off between complexity and performance of different controllers is addressed. For this purpose five different control approaches for a variable speed air source heat pump in a multi family house are compared for three different use-cases. The used controls differ in complexity and the use of external input data like price and weather forecasts. The use-cases are: Constant electricity prices, time variable electricity prices and PV self-consumption. Four different rule-based controllers are compared to a convex MPC approach, presented in this work. Results show that the MPC approach reduces annual operating cost by 6-11% for constant electricity prices and 6-16% in the case of variable electricity prices. Rule-based approaches lead to cost reductions of 2-4%. MPC could increases PV self-consumption from 56% to 58% up to 64-71%. The rule base approaches are found computationally less demanding and easier to design. However fine-tuning has been considerable work and with changing boundary conditions rules had to be readjusted. It showed that increasing thermal storage without MPC is not beneficial and optimised controls are a prerequisite to benefit from increased storage sizes. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.