Most modern HVAC systems suffer from two intrinsic problems. First, inabilityto meet diverse comfort requirements of the occupants. Second, heat or cool anentire zone even when the zone is only partially occupied. Both issues can bemitigated by using personal comfort systems (PCS) which bridge the comfort gapbetween what is provided by a central HVAC system and the personal preferencesof the occupants. In recent work, we have proposed and deployed such a system,called SPOT. We address the question, "How should an existing HVAC system modify itsoperation to benefit the availability of PCS like SPOT?" For example, energyconsumption could be reduced during sparse occupancy by choosing appropriatethermal set backs, with the PCS providing the additional offset in thermalcomfort required for each occupant. Our control strategy based on ModelPredictive Control (MPC), employs a bi-linear thermal model, and has twotime-scales to accommodate the physical constraints that limit certaincomponents of the central HVAC system from frequently changing their setpoints. We compare the energy consumption and comfort offered by our SPOT-aware HVACsystem with that of a state-of-the-art MPC-based central HVAC system inmultiple settings including different room layouts and partial deployment ofPCS. Numerical evaluations show that our system obtains, in average, 45% (15%)savings in energy in summer (winter), compared with the benchmark system forthe case of homogeneous comfort requirements. For heterogeneous comfortrequirements, we observe 51% (29%) improvement in comfort in summer (winter) inaddition to significant savings in energy.
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