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US 10,378,805 B2Granted
Model predictive control for heat transfer to fluids
AssigneeAlliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC
InventorsXin Jin, Jeff Maguire, Dane Christensen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Model predictive control methods are disclosed which provide, among other things, efficient strategies for controlling heat-transfer to a fluid.
Claims13
A method for controlling a temperature of a fluid, the method comprising:
- an minimizing energy required to heat the fluid, wherein the method includes a model predictive controller configured to achieve the minimizing using a objective function defined by
- Ropt∝Crate[P1(R(i))+P2(R(i))], wherein:
- Ropt is an optimized fluid temperature set-point,
- P1 is the first power consumed by a first heating element to achieve a fluid temperature set-point (R(i)),
- P2 is the second power consumed by a second heating element to achieve the fluid temperature set-point (R(i)), and
- Crate is an electricity rate;
- changing the fluid temperature set-point;
- and heating the fluid utilizing the first heating element and the second heating element to the optimized fluid temperature set-point;
- solving the objective function for the optimized fluid temperature set-point with the changed fluid temperature set-point;
- repeating the changing and the solving until the minimizing is achieved;
- adjusting at least one of the first power consumed by a first heating element or the second power consumed by a second heating element so that the fluid attains the optimized fluid temperature set-point;
- and heating the fluid utilizing the first heating element and the second heating element to the optimized fluid temperature set-point.
9 more elements
A method for controlling a temperature of water utilizing a resistive heating element and a heat pump, the method comprising:
- minimizing the sum of the first power consumed by a heat pump and a second power consumed by a resistive heating element, wherein the minimizing is achieved using an objective function defined by
- Ropt∝Crate[Php(R(i))+Pelec(R(i))], wherein:
- Ropt is an optimized water temperature set-point for the water,
- P1 is the first power consumed by a heat pump to achieve a water temperature set-point (R(i)),
- P2 is the second power consumed by a resistive heating element to achieve the water temperature set-point (R(i)), and
- Crate is an electricity rate;
- changing the water temperature set-point;
- solving the objective function for the optimized water temperature set-point with the changed water temperature set-point;
- repeating the changing and the solving until the minimization is achieved;
- and
- adjusting at least one of the resistive heating element or the heat pump to heat the water to the optimized water temperature set-point.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.