Adaptive model predictive control of a residential solar-air hybrid heat pump system

With the increasing adoption of renewable energy in the power grid, the future of building energy systems is transitioning toward a distributed and multi-source energy framework. To significantly alleviate strain on the power grid and enhance the integration of renewable energy sources, it is important to optimize the energy intergation and the use of energy storage. To realize decarbonization in domestic hot water supply, this paper proposed a new residential solar-air hybrid heat pumps water heating system based on a three-fluid heat exchanger. Furthermore, an adaptive model predictive control (AMPC) with online model-updating was developed to realize the demand response control for minimized power payment when the hot water requirement is well satisfied. As a result, the proposed hybrid solar-air heat pump system demonstrates superior performance and flexibility, which outperforms the parallel solar-assisted heat pump system with a 14.5% increase in energy savings and a 23.3% improvement in overall system performance. Moreover, the developed model predictive controller consistently demonstrates 52.5% energy saving and 15.5% cost savings in typical day compared to rule-based control strategies.