• Overview
• Visitor Info
• People

• Publications

• Courses
• GA/SA/MA

• News
• Seminars

Developing an online set-point optimizer for heat pumps

Overview

Heat pumps provide a very efficient means of using electrical energy to supply heat to buildings. Variable-speed vapour compression systems are becoming more widespread and show significant potential for energy savings, since they can modulate their output to accurately match demand. Efficient control of the thermodynamic cycle of the heat pump is not trivial, especially in the case of water-to-water heat pump systems. Research has been conducted on the use of internal set-point optimizers for variable-speed heat pumps, but the potential remains unclear.

Project

This work focuses on the development of an internal set-point optimizer for a water-to-water heat pump integrated in a low-temperature district network. The developed controller should be compared to a standard heat-pump regulator in simulation, and if possibly on the NEST or SELF demonstrator platforms. The internal controller should be compatible with a higher-level energy management system.

The project is offered at the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH jointly with the Urban Energy Systems laboratory at Empa. For more information, please contact Dr Ralph Evins (evins@arch.ethz.ch).