An experimental system for advanced heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) control

While having the potential to significantly improve heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system performance, advanced (e.g., optimal, robust and various forms of adaptive) controllers have yet to be incorporated into commercial systems. Controllers consisting of distributed proportional-integral (PI) control loops continue to dominate commercial HVAC systems. Investigation into advanced HVAC controllers has largely been limited to proposals and simulations, with few controllers being tested on physical systems. While simulation can be insightful, the only true means for verifying the performance provided by HVAC controllers is by actually using them to control an HVAC system. The construction and modeling of an experimental system for testing advanced HVAC controllers, is the focus of this article.A simple HVAC system, intended for controlling the temperature and flow rate of the discharge air, was built using standard components. While only a portion of an overall HVAC system, it is representative of a typical hot water to air heating system. In this article, a single integrated environment is created that is used for data acquisition, controller design, simulation, and closed loop controller implementation and testing. This environment provides the power and flexibility needed for rapid prototyping of various controllers and control design methodologies.