Comfort Control in Buildings

The aim of this book is to investigate comfort control inside buildings, and how this can be achieved through low energy consumption. It presents a comprehensive exploration of the design, development and implementation of several advanced control systems that maintain users' comfort (thermal and indoor air quality) whilst minimizing energy consumption. The book includes a detailed account of the latest cutting edge developments in this area, and presents several control systems based on Model Predictive Control approaches. Real-life examples are provided, and the book is supplemented by illustrations, tables, all of which facilitate understanding of the text.

Energy consumption in buildings (residential and non-residential) represents almost the half of the total world energy consumption, and they are also responsible for approximately 35% of CO₂ emissions. For these reasons, the reduction of energy consumption associated with the construction and use of buildings, and the increase of energy efficiency in their climatic refurbishment are frequently studied topics in academia and industry. As the productivity of users is directly related to their comfort, a middle ground needs to be found between comfort of users and energy efficiency. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to develop innovation and technology which can provide comfortable environments with minimum energy consumption. This book is intended for researchers interested in control engineering, energy and bioclimatic buildings, and for mechanical and process control engineers. It also accessible to postgraduate students embarking on a career in this area, particularly those studying architecture.

Maria del Mar Castilla is a researcher at the University of Almeria, Spain. She received the Computer Science Engineering degree from the University of Almeria, Spain in 2009. She obtains the Ph.D. degree in advanced comfort control techniques inside buildings, which was performed in a solar energy research centre: the CIESOL mixed centre, from the University of Almeria in 2013. Her research interests are focused on the fields of identification, modelling and predictive control with applications to energy efficient buildings. She has participated in several R&D projects and is co-author of many papers in international journals and conferences. She is member of the “Automatic control, Robotics and Mechatronics” research group, and the Comite Espanol de Automatica (main Spanish Association in Automatic Control).

Jose Domingo Alvarez is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Seville, Spain. He received the Computer Science Engineering degree from the University of Almeria, Spain in 2003. Then, in 2008, he obtained, from the same university, the Ph.D. degree in Automatic Control in Solar Plants which was performed in a leading research centre in this field: the Solar Platform of Almeria. His research interests are focused on the fields of repetitive control, predictive control and classical PID control with applications to solar power plants and energy efficient buildings. He is a member of the “Automatic control, Robotics and Mechatronics” research group. He has been director of 2 Ph.D. Thesis, has participated in several R&D projects and is co-author of many papers in reputed international journals with high impact factor. He is also a member of the Comite Espanol de Automatica (main Spanish Association in Automatic Control).

Francisco Rodriguez Diaz is Associate Professor of Systems Engineering and Automatic Control at the University of Almeria (Spain). He obtained his Telecommunication Engineering degree from Madrid Polytechnics University (Spain) and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Almeria in 2002. Now he is a researcher and member of the Automatic Control, Robotic and Mechatronic research group of the University of Almeria. He has participated in several Spanish and European research projects, and I+D+i tasks with many companies. He is member of IFAC Technical Committee TC 8.1, Control in Agriculture, since 2005. His current research interests are focused to the application of modeling, automatic control, and robotics techniques to dynamic systems and education.

Manuel Berenguel is professor of Systems Engineering and Automatic Control at the University of Almeria, Spain. He earned an industrial engineering degree and Ph.D. from the University of Seville, Spain. His research interests are in hierarchical, predictive and robust control, with applications to solar energy systems, agriculture, and biotechnology and in control education. He has been Vice-Rector of Information and Communication Technologies at University of Almeria (Spain). He is also the head of the research group “Automatic control, Robotics and Mechatronics” (http://arm.ual.es). He is co-author of the book Advanced Control of Solar Plants (Springer, 1997), Control of Solar Energy Systems (Springer, 2012) and Control Automatico con Herramientas Interactivas (Pearson Education, 2012). He is co-author of 2 patents, and more than 90 papers in international journals. He has participated in IPC of several international conferences and reviewer for several journals. He has been member of the board of Governors of the Comite Espanol de Automatica (main Spanish Association in Automatic Control) from 2003 to 2008 and 2012-now, senior member of IEEE Control System Society and member of the IFAC Technical Committees TC 8.01 Control in Agriculture, TC 6.3. Power and Energy Systems and TC 8.4 Biosystems and bioprocesses.