Energy Efficiency Comparison of a Centralized and a Multi-agent Market Based Heating System in a Field Test

For the built environment it is envisaged that in the near future the total annual heat demand could be covered by renewable sources generated within the built environment. More and more devices, such as heat pumps and solar collectors will enable a sustainable and distributed generation of heat. Centralized climate management systems are challenged by this development. Multi agent solutions which have been shown to optimize cost and energy efficiency in electricity grids have been proposed in the past to deal with this. A solution based on electronic market principles called HeatMatcher has been designed and tested in simulation mode and was next tested in an installation for floor heating of an apartment building. A centralized climate management system could also control the heating system. By varying the control for several consecutive days between both systems at identical spells of weather for different types of seasons a comparison could be made between the operation and energy efficiency of both systems. It is shown that the multi-agent system is able to control the installation in a stable way and gives priority to sustainable generation of supply to the benefit of the overall installation.