Development of a MPC controller for the indoor temperature of a nearly Zero-Energy Building. Application to the CorTau House.

The building sector accounts for up to one-third of the EU total final energy consumption, as most European houses and offices were built before 1990 and they did not undergo any major renovation. They show poor thermal insulation capability, and few strategies are implemented today to control and reduce the electricity and heating demands. Almost 40% of the total CO2 emissions in Europe comes indeed from the building sector, both indirectly during the construction process and directly in the operational lifetime. The set of contaminants, however, also includes hydrofluorocarbons (i.e., greenhouse gases), fine particles (PM2.5/PM10) and toxic dusts, depending on the energy mix of each country. On average, natural gas covers 38.2% of the power demand from the residential stock in OECD countries, while a phasing-out 10% is covered with oil. The high release of pollutants from the building sector could be cut down with on-site renewable generation and an extensive adoption of smart monitoring systems. For this reason, on one side, technologically advanced devices such as hydrogen-fed fuel cells stacks may represent an interesting solution to push down emissions when green H2 is exploited and, on the other, a reduction in the building energy load can be achieved digitalizing the stock and implementing control strategies for both the electricity and heating demand, keeping in any case high-quality indoor conditions for the household. In this context this study aims at developing a Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy for the indoor air temperature of a nearly Zero-Energy Building. The heating load will be covered by a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) stack. The case study is the CorTau House, a recently renovated single-family house located in Livorno Ferraris, in the province of Vercelli. A co-simulation interface between EnergyPlus and MATLAB is built, as the energy model of the house is developed in EnergyPlus, while both the controller and the fuel cell stack are designed in MATLAB. The schedule of the heating power supply computed by the controller and the corresponding indoor air temperature evolution in the house will be the ultimate results of the co-simulation, in accordance with a temperature setpoint to specify in the controller design phase.