| Abstract | Direct load control (DLC) for building HVAC systems, through preconditioning and setup/setback sequences, can substantially reduce electricity consumption during peak periods. Yet, the effectiveness of a DLC sequence strictly depends on the thermophysical attributes of a building and its occupants’ tolerance to variations in the thermal environment. The current one-size-fits-all approach to DLC disregards the inter-building diversity of these factors. This paper demonstrates the inter-building diversity of preconditioning and setup/setback needs by deriving unique DLC sequences for different buildings. To this end, variants of an EnergyPlus model representing a small commercial building in Toronto, Ontario are created by altering its envelope, HVAC capacity, and occupants’ temperature preference characteristics. Through a metaheuristic search, personalized DLC sequences that minimize the HVAC-related electricity costs and the time spent outside a preferred temperature range are estimated for each variant. These personalized DLC sequences were compared with six baseline DLC sequences. Unlike the baseline DLC sequences, the optimal sequences could attain an average of 20% reduction in HVAC-related electricity costs while keeping the time spent outside the preferred temperature ranges under 3% for all variants. |
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