ApartmentsThermal

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ApartmentsThermal is a 8 zones building located in Spain, Tarragona. It has a total surface area of 417.12m2 and a total volume of 1042.83m3.

Building and thermal zones

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Thermal systems

Apartments thermal system consists of a centralized water-to-water geothermal heat pump (HP) system, which extracts heat from the ground through a vertical ground heat exchanger, and provides hot water for the indoor fan coil units (two units per apartment) and the Domestic Hot Water (DHW). The DHW system is composed by four storage systems, one for each household, and consist in a four node-stratified tank. Heating loop circuit from the heat pump is connected to the bottom half part of the tanks and electrical heaters are placed on the top part acting as auxiliary systems.

Electrical systems

Regarding the electrical part, Apartments system includes a PV array, a community battery and an electric vehicle (EV). In the thermal scenario, community battery and electric vehicle charging are disregarded; see ApartmentsGrid.

Controllable components

Fan coil control

In order to control rooms temperature there is a single set point for each apartment.

../_images/fancoil_seilab.PNG

Set point (thermostat) temperatures of the thermal zones are compared with the actual temperatures sensed with the Energy Management System (EMS) sensors of EnergyPlus. A temperature hysteresis control with a dead band of 0.51°C is implemented with an internal program. The heat provided by the fan coils is directly managed with the EMS actuator Fan Coil Air Mass Flow Rate to mimic an on-off two-stage control. In addition, in order to communicate with the HP, fan coils launch a binary signal each time step, one if heating is needed in the zone or zero for the contrary case.

Storage tank control

Storage tanks present two thermostats, one in the top part (Node 1) and the other in the middle bottom part (Node 3). Only node 3 is controlled by the user.

../_images/tanks_seilab.PNG

Node 1 temperature is controlled by an electrical heater and by a hysteresis control with a dead band of 2°C. On the other hand, the bottom part is connected with the HP loop and is controlled by a hysteresis control with a dead band of 5°C. As for the fan coils, storage tanks launch a binary signal to the HP based on the bottom part control.

Heat pump control

The user has the possibility to control the water supply temperature of the pump and the on/off mode of the pump.

../_images/pump_seilab.PNG

No active cooling system is implemented, a free cooling strategy is applied during summer season. This strategy is modelled with an enhanced air infiltration rate from June to September. Summer season in Spain can reach high temperature such as 35°C. This strategy allows maintaining rooms’ temperature into an acceptable range.

Simulation inputs

For more detail, please check the documentation The Apartments environment or the source code energym.envs.apartments.apartments.Apartments.

Variable Name

Type

Lower Bound

Upper Bound

# States

Description

P1_T_Thermostat_sp

scalar

16

26

Floor 1 thermostat setpoint (°C).

P2_T_Thermostat_sp

scalar

16

26

Floor 2 thermostat setpoint (°C).

P3_T_Thermostat_sp

scalar

16

26

Floor 3 thermostat setpoint (°C).

P4_T_Thermostat_sp

scalar

16

26

Floor 4 thermostat setpoint (°C).

Bd_T_HP_sp

scalar

35

55

Heat pump temperature setpoint (°C).

P1_T_Tank_sp

scalar

30

70

Floor 1 tank temperature setpoint (°C).

P2_T_Tank_sp

scalar

30

70

Floor 2 tank temperature setpoint (°C).

P3_T_Tank_sp

scalar

30

70

Floor 3 tank temperature setpoint (°C).

P4_T_Tank_sp

scalar

30

70

Floor 4 tank temperature setpoint (°C).

HVAC_onoff_HP_sp

discrete

2

Heat pump on/off setpoint

Bd_Pw_Bat_sp

scalar

-1

1

Battery charging/discharging setpoint rate.

Bd_Ch_EVBat_sp

scalar

0

1

EV battery charging setpoint rate.

Simulation outputs

Variable Name

Type

Lower Bound

Upper Bound

# States

Description

Ext_T

scalar

-10

40

Outdoor temperature (°C).

Ext_RH

scalar

0

100

Outdoor relative humidity (%RH).

Ext_Irr

scalar

0

1000

Direct normal radiation (W/m2).

Ext_P

scalar

80000

130000

Outdoor air pressure (Pa).

Bd_Fl_HP

scalar

0

2

Heat pump flow rate (kg/s).

Bd_T_HP_supply

scalar

35

55

Heat pump supply temperature (°C).

Bd_T_HP_return

scalar

35

55

Heat pump return temperature (°C).

Bd_T_HP_sp_out

scalar

35

55

Heat pump temperature setpoint (°C).

P3_T_Thermostat_sp_out

scalar

16

26

Floor 3 thermostat setpoint (°C).

P4_T_Thermostat_sp_out

scalar

16

26

Floor 4 thermostat setpoint (°C).

P2_T_Thermostat_sp_out

scalar

16

26

Floor 2 thermostat setpoint (°C).

P1_T_Thermostat_sp_out

scalar

16

26

Floor 1 thermostat setpoint (°C).

P1_T_Tank_sp_out

scalar

30

70

Floor 1 temperature setpoint (°C).

P2_T_Tank_sp_out

scalar

30

70

Floor 2 temperature setpoint (°C).

P3_T_Tank_sp_out

scalar

30

70

Floor 3 temperature setpoint (°C).

P4_T_Tank_sp_out

scalar

30

70

Floor 4 temperature setpoint (°C).

Bd_Pw_Bat_sp_out

scalar

-1

1

Battery charging/discharging rate setpoint.

Bd_Ch_EVBat_sp_out

scalar

0

1

EV battery charging rate setpoint .

Bd_DisCh_EVBat

scalar

0

1

EV battery discharging rate.

Bd_Frac_Vent_sp_out

scalar

0

1

Ventilation power fraction.

Z01_E_Appl

scalar

0

1000

Zone 1 appliance energy (Wh).

Z02_E_Appl

scalar

0

1000

Zone 2 appliance energy (Wh).

Z03_E_Appl

scalar

0

1000

Zone 3 appliance energy (Wh).

Z04_E_Appl

scalar

0

1000

Zone 4 appliance energy (Wh).

Z05_E_Appl

scalar

0

1000

Zone 5 appliance energy (Wh).

Z06_E_Appl

scalar

0

1000

Zone 6 appliance energy (Wh).

Z07_E_Appl

scalar

0

1000

Zone 7 appliance energy (Wh).

Z08_E_Appl

scalar

0

1000

Zone 8 appliance energy (Wh).

P1_FlFrac_HW

scalar

0

1

Floor 1 hot water flow rate fraction.

P2_FlFrac_HW

scalar

0

1

Floor 2 hot water flow rate fraction.

P3_FlFrac_HW

scalar

0

1

Floor 3 hot water flow rate fraction.

P4_FlFrac_HW

scalar

0

1

Floor 4 hot water flow rate fraction.

Z01_T

scalar

10

40

Zone 1 temperature (°C).

Z01_RH

scalar

0

100

Zone 1 relative humidity (%RH).

Z02_T

scalar

10

40

Zone 2 temperature (°C).

Z02_RH

scalar

0

100

Zone 2 relative humidity (%RH).

Z03_T

scalar

10

40

Zone 3 temperature (°C).

Z03_RH

scalar

0

100

Zone 3 relative humidity (%RH).

Z04_T

scalar

10

40

Zone 4 temperature (°C).

Z04_RH

scalar

0

100

Zone 4 relative humidity (%RH).

Z05_T

scalar

10

40

Zone 5 temperature (°C).

Z05_RH

scalar

0

100

Zone 5 relative humidity (%RH).

Z06_T

scalar

10

40

Zone 6 temperature (°C).

Z06_RH

scalar

0

100

Zone 6 relative humidity (%RH).

Z07_T

scalar

10

40

Zone 7 temperature (°C).

Z07_RH

scalar

0

100

Zone 7 relative humidity (%RH).

Z08_T

scalar

10

40

Zone 8 temperature (°C).

Z08_RH

scalar

0

100

Zone 8 relative humidity (%RH).

Fa_Stat_EV

scalar

0

1

EV status (availability)

Fa_ECh_EVBat

scalar

0

4000.0

EV battery charging energy (Wh).

Fa_EDCh_EVBat

scalar

0

4000.0

EV battery discharging energy (Wh).

Fa_ECh_Bat

scalar

0

4000.0

Battery charging energy (Wh).

Fa_EDCh_Bat

scalar

0

4000.0

Battery discharging energy (Wh).

Bd_FracCh_EVBat

scalar

0

1

EV battery state of charge.

Bd_FracCh_Bat

scalar

0

1

Battery state of charge.

P4_T_Tank

scalar

30

70

Floor 4 tank temperature (°C).

P2_T_Tank

scalar

30

70

Floor 2 tank temperature (°C).

P1_T_Tank

scalar

30

70

Floor 1 tank temperature (°C).

P3_T_Tank

scalar

30

70

Floor 3 tank temperature (°C).

HVAC_Pw_HP

scalar

0

120000.0

Heat pump power (W)

HVAC_onoff_HP_sp_out

scalar

0

1

Heat pump on/off setpoint.

Bd_E_HW

scalar

-3000.0

3000.0

Hot water energy (Wh).

Fa_Pw_All

scalar

0

30000.0

Total power consumption (W).

Fa_Pw_Prod

scalar

0

10000.0

PV power production (W).

Fa_E_self

scalar

-2000.0

2000.0

Self consumption energy (Wh).

Fa_E_HVAC

scalar

0

2000.0

HVAC energy consumption (Wh).

Fa_E_All

scalar

0

2000.0

Total energy consumption (Wh).

Fa_E_Light

scalar

0

100

Lighting energy (Wh).

Fa_E_Appl

scalar

0

500.0

Appliances energy (Wh).

Weather files

The available weather files for this model have the following specifiers:

  • ESP_CT_Barcelona (Default)

  • ESP_CT_Barcelona_ElPratAP1 (Evaluation file)

  • ESP_CT_Barcelona_ElPratAP2

  • ESP_CT_Girona1

  • ESP_CT_Girona2

  • ESP_CT_Lleida1

  • ESP_CT_Lleida2

  • ESP_CT_Montseny

  • ESP_CT_Reus1

  • ESP_CT_Reus2

  • ESP_CT_Sabadell1

  • ESP_CT_Sabadell2

  • ESP_CT_Talar

  • ESP_CT_Tortosa1

  • ESP_CT_Tortosa2

Evaluation scenario

The evaluation scenario for the ApartmentsThermal-v0 model consists of a control from January to April with the objective of minimizing the grid exchange, while keeping the zone temperatures between 19 and 24°C. For this goal, the tracked KPIs are the average exchanged energy (absolute value of the difference of produced and consumed energy), and the average temperature deviation and total temperature violations with respect to the interval [19, 24].

Notebook example

Here is a notebook example: