Minimalist RC network for building energy simulations: a case study based on OpenBPS

Robust and fast dynamic simulation tools are crucial for the sizing of the components of complex HVAC system and for the definition of the optimal control strategy. In this work, a first step towards the extension of OpenBPS, a new building energy performance simulation tool, to the dynamic simulation of HVAC systems is presented. In particular, the building model has been reduced to a Resistors-Capacitors (RC) network and OpenBPS has been used for the identification of the parameters of the grey-box model. Indeed, the reduction and identification of the building energy model is the fundamental step for extension of the tool to perform dynamic simulations of complex HVAC systems with the advantage of low computational load, thus suitable for parametric yearly simulations and control strategy analyses. The toolkit of identification and cross validation of a minimalist RC network is presented in this paper, discussing the results obtained for a case study building under study in the European project Heat4Cool founded by Horizon 2020 programme. The identified model demonstrated a good accuracy in the estimation of the room temperature under different tests settings representative of the actual operating conditions.