Preliminary Report: Controller Prototyping and Validation for Photo-Voltaic Comfort Cooling

Large office buildings - typically with glass fronts - often suffer from a high cooling demand during summertime. Typically, this requires a large amount of additional electricity for the cooling system. One straightforward alternative is to store cooling energy using electricity generated by solar cells, and this paper investigates, demonstrates and validates the feasibility of providing energy efficient comfort cooling with a low environmental impact, while offering flexibility to the electrical grid. Also, the possibility of reusing unmodified existing CTS systems is investigated. Finally, the possibility of providing improved comfort through intelligent supervisory control is studied. The system is comprised of a grid coupled photovoltaic system, a heat pump, an ice bank and a cooling coil to interface the existing ventilation system in the office building.