Solar Gains Regulation via Holistically Defined Control System of the Internal Environment
Abstract
Indoor living and working environments can greatly benefit from the application of automatically controlled internal environment and can achieve lower energy consumption as well as higher user efficiency. Through properly designed and regulated building envelope higher utilization of available solar gains as well as better daylighting and natural ventilation in the internal environment can be attained. Any design of such automated system should therefore acknowledge the need for the integral and holistic treatment of working and living environment with regard to its thermal, visual and air quality conditions. The presented system of integral control of internal environment (ICsIE) is based on the above stated presumptions and regulates thermal, visual and air quality conditions of an occupied office in the building of the Faculty for Civil and Geodetic Engineering University of Ljubljana (UL) in Ljubljana. The ICsIE is comprised of a sensor array monitoring both internal and external conditions. The data transmitted from the sensors are processed by the programmable logical controller (PLC) and are presented on an interface application running on a standard PC. The control system is based on the combination of conventional PI and advanced fuzzy logic controllers. In the paper special attention is paid to the ICsIE’s thermal control.