Optimized control of a residential heat pump

Recent developments in both heating and power sectors contribute to the creation of an integrated power system. Taking also into account the increased amount of distributed generation, current trends in power generation, transportation and consumption will be significantly affected. Linking components of this integrated system, such as heat pumps, can be controlled in different ways, to provide certain benefits to different parties. The scope of this paper is to provide a control algorithm for a residential heat pump, in order to minimize its cost, paid by the customer/owner, while maintaining a certain temperature and comfort level. A commercially available heat pump installed in a typical house with standard thermal insulation is considered. Simulation results conclude that the proposed controlling method succeeds in reducing the amount of money spent by the customer for residential heating purposes.