Auto-Calibration and Control Strategy Determination for a Variable-Speed Heat Pump Water Heater Using Optimization

Abstract

This paper introduces applications of the GenOpt® optimizer coupled with a vapor compression system model for auto-calibration and control strategy determination towards the development of a variable-speed ground-source heat pump water heating unit. The GenOpt® optimizer can be linked with any simulation program using input and output text files. It effectively facilitates optimization runs. Using our GenOpt® wrapper program, we can flexibly define objectives for optimizations, targets, and constraints. Those functionalities enable running extensive optimization cases for model calibration, configuration design and control strategy determination. In addition, we describe a methodology to improve prediction accuracy using functional calibration curves. Using the calibrated model, we investigated control strategies of the ground-source heat pump water heater, considering multiple control objectives, covering the entire operation range.