Conference Paper

Proceedings of SimBuild Conference 2024

Heuristic Mathematical Optimization of Heat Pumps in Cascade to Reduce Energy Consumption

Laura Zabala Urrutia ^1,2, Jesus Febres Pascual ¹, Raymond Sterling ^1
1 R2M solution Spain, Spain
² University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Spain

Abstract: The use of heat pumps for heating and cooling in buildings is increasing significantly. This is due to their crucial role in facilitating the integration of renewable energy sources in buildings. Previous research conducted on the optimization of a cascade of chillers considering the variation of the coefficient of performance (COP) in relation to the load distribution demonstrated energy savings. This work presents an analogous optimization strategy by drawing upon the similarity between the COP curves of chillers and heat pumps. A heuristic mathematical optimization is used to calculate the optimal threshold values for the heat pump cascade. A heating installation of a cascade of three heat pumps is simulated at virtual level, and the performance of the optimized cascade is compared to the baseline configuration. The results show a reduction in electric consumption of up to 12.51%.
Keywords: heat pumps, energy efficiency, optimization, cascade, energyplus
Pages: 221 - 228
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