This dissertation explores the idea of inducing grid peak demand curtailment by turning commercial buildings into interactive assets for building owners during the demand control period. The work presented here is useful for both ab initio design of new sites and for existing or retrofitted sites. An analytical hierarchy process (AHP)-based framework is developed to curtail the thermal load effectively across a group of commercial buildings. It gives an insight into the amount of peak demand reduction possible for each building, subject to indoor thermal comfort constraints as per ASHRAE standards. Furthermore, the detailed operation of buildings in communion with the electric grid is illustrated through case studies. This analysis forms an outline for the assessment of transactive energy opportunities for commercial buildings in distribution system operations and lays the foundation for a seamless building-to-grid integration framework. The contribution of this dissertation is fourfold – (a) an efficient method of developing high-fidelity physics-based building energy models for understanding the realistic operation of commercial buildings, (b) identification of minimal dataset to achieve a target accuracy for the building energy models (c) quantification of building peak demand reduction potential and corresponding energy savings across a stipulated range of thermostat setpoint temperatures and (d) AHP-based demand curtailment scheme. By careful modeling, it is shown that commercial building models developed using this methodology are both accurate and robust. As a result, the proposed approach can be extended to other commercial buildings of diverse characteristics, independent of the location. The methodology presented here takes a holistic approach towards building energy modeling by accounting for several building parameters and interactions between them. In addition, parametric analysis is done to identify a useful minimal dataset required to achieve a specified accuracy for the building energy models. This thesis describes the concept of commercial buildings as interactive assets in a transactive grid environment and the idea behind its working. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation titled "An Expert-based Approach for Grid Peak Demand Curtailment using HVAC Thermostat Setpoint Interventions in Commercial Buildings" tackles two important challenges in the energy management domain: –electric grid peak demand curtailment and energy savings in commercial buildings. The distinguishing feature of the proposed solution lies in addressing these challenges solely through demand-side management (DSM) strategies, which include HVAC thermostat setpoint interventions and lighting control. We present a methodology for developing highly accurate building energy models that serve as digital twins of actual buildings. These digital replicas can be used to quantify the impact of various interventions and reflect the realistic operation of commercial buildings across varied conditions. This enables building owners to control demand intelligently and transact energy effectively in the electricity market. The development of Internet of Things (IoT) market and advanced technologies such as smart meters and smart thermostats allows for the design of novel strategies that address traditional challenges faced by electric grid operators. This dissertation elaborates on how smart buildings can leverage IoT-based solutions to participate in the electricity market during demand control periods. We also developed an expert opinion-based demand curtailment allocation scheme resulting in grid peak demand reduction. The numerical results obtained reinforce the effectiveness of the proposed solution across varied climatic conditions.

The explosion of information and information technology has led many firms to evolve a dispersed product development process with people and organizations spread throughout the world. To coordinate such dispersed processes managers attempt to establish a culture that implicitly rewards product development teams based on their ability to perform against a set of strategic metrics such as customer satisfaction, time to market, defect reduction, or platform reuse. Many papers have focused on selecting the right metrics and establishing the culture. In this paper we focus on a practical method to fine-tune a firm's relative emphasis on the metrics that they have chosen. In particular, we seek to advise a firm whether to increase or decrease their emphasis on each metric such that the change in emphasis improves profits. Using a thermostat analogy we apply an adaptive control feedback mechanism in which we estimate the incremental improvements in priorities that will increase profits. Iterations of adaptive control seek to maximize profits even if the environment is changing. We demonstrate the metric thermostat’s use in an application to a firm with over $20 billion in revenue. In developing the metric thermostat we recognize that there are hundreds of detailed actions, such as the use of the house of quality and the use of robust design, among which the product development team must choose. We also recognize that they will act in their own best interests to choose the actions that maximize their own implicit rewards as determined by the metrics. Management need not observe or dictate these detailed actions, but rather control the process by establishing the culture that sets the implicit weights on the metrics. The thermostat works by changing those implicit weights. We define the problem, introduce the adaptive control mechanism, modify “agency” theory to deal with incremental changes about an operating point, and derive methods that are practical and robust in light of the data that firms have available. Our methods include statistical estimation and internal surveys. The mathematics identify the critical few parameters that need be determined and highlight how to estimate them. Both the measures and the estimation are illustrated in our initial application to a large officeequipment firm. The metrics thermostat suggests that this firm has about the right emphasis on timeto- market, but has overshot on platform reuse and has lost its focus on customer satisfaction. We describe how the firm reacted to the recommendations and changed its organization. We describe additional ongoing applications with the US Air Force, the US Navy, and a major automobile and truck manufacturer. / This research was funded by the Center for Innovation in Product Development (CIPD) and the International Center for Research on the Management of Technology (ICRMOT), M.I.T.

This thesis reports light-scattering experiments and visual investigations close to the critical point, in the solvophobic systems, 3-methylpyridine (3MP) + heavy water (D2O) + sodium bromide (NaBr) and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) + water (W) + secondary butyl alcohol (sBA). The system 3MP + D2O + NaBr was chosen in order to throw more light on the reported crossover from mean-field to Ising-type of critical behaviour shown by this system and to investigate the existence of a mean-field tricritical point in it at an NaBr weight fraction of X = 0.1700, two issues that have been the subject of an intense scientific debate in recent years. The system MEK + W + sBA is the result of our search for a system, other than, the well known 3-methylpyridine (3MP) + water (W) + heavy water (HW) + potassium iodide (KI), in which a quadruple critical point (QCP) can potentially be realized. In addition to this the thesis provides exhaustive details regarding the design, fabrication, and characterization, of a microkelvin thermostat in which a temperature stability of the order of a few microkelvin is achievable despite its relatively simple thermal design. The thesis is organized into 6 Chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the field of critical phenomena in liquid mixtures. The critical phenomena observed in various systems such as simple fluids, ionic fluids, polymer blends and polymer solutions, and micellar and microemulsion systems, are discussed in brief. Particular attention has been paid to the investigations by various researchers, into, the crossover from Ising to mean-field critical behaviour in electrolyte and polymer solutions, and in amphiphilic systems. Recent theoretical attempts at modeling ionic criticality have also been cited and summarized. A brief discussion on the various types of special critical points and multicritical points that are observed in multicomponent liquid mixtures and other condensed matter systems has been provided. The appealing possiblity of the presence of multicritical points in ionic fluids leading to crossover behaviour is also discussed. The chapter ends with a statement on the goals of this thesis. Chapter 2 describes the instrumentation and other aspects of the experimental techniques used for the light-scattering studies reported in this thesis. Details about the thermal instrumentation such as the water bath and the silicone-oil bath used for the visual investigation experiments and the metal thermostat used for the light-scattering experiments have been provided. The important design considerations relating to the achievement of a high degree of temperature stability (Formula) have been elucidated clearly. The modifications made to the design of the light-scattering thermostat, that enables achievement of a temperature stability of ± 2.5 mK at temperatures 19 ≤ T ≤ 24°C has been discussed. A section has been devoted to the description of the calibration of the temperature sensors we used in our experiments. The light-scattering instrumentation has been discussed in depth. The difficulties associated with the light-scattering techniques when it is used as a tool to study critical phenomena have been detailed. This is followed by a description of the method we used in correcting our light-scattering data for double-scattering effects. A description of the sample cells used for visual investigations and light-scattering experiments along with the sample filling and cleaning procedures followed by us has been described. Chapter 3 deals with the first of the three important problems discussed in this thesis. The chapter is aimed at investigating the crossover behaviour of the solvo-phobic system 3-methylpyridine (3MP)+ water (H2O) + sodium bromide (NaBr), by means of light-scattering studies on the strongly motivated and non-trivial system of 3-methylpyridine (3MP) + heavywater (D2O) + sodium bromide (NaBr). The replacement of H2O by D2O in 3MP + D2O + NaBr, is expected to accentuate the crossover behaviour reportedly displayed by 3MP + H2O + NaBr, and thereby, provide conclusive evidence regarding the existence or otherwise of a crossover between the Ising- and the mean-field-types of critical behaviour in this system. The chapter begins with a detailed literature survey on the topic of the crossover behaviour shown by the system 3MP + H2O + NaBr. We also provide a survey of the effect of the iso-topic H→D substitution on the critical behaviour of binary and quasibinary systems. Through an argument based on small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) studies and the Kirkwood-Buff integrals (KBIs), a strong and cogent motivation is established, which proves that, if the reported crossover behaviour in 3MP + H2O + NaBr is assumed to be correct, then the system 3MP + D2O + NaBr should display not just the same crossover behaviour as shown by the undeuterated system 3MP + H2O + NaBr, but, in addition, also a more pronounced dependence of the crossover temperature on the concentration of NaBr in the mixture than that seen in 3MP + H2O + NaBr. This approach to understand the crossover behaviour of 3MP + H2O + NaBr, has not been used by any of the previous investigators. The coexistence curve data for the system 3MP + D2O + NaBr are obtained at six different values of the NaBr weight fractions viz. X = 0, 0.0250, 0.0800, 0.1200, 0.1500, and 0.1800. The closed-loop immiscibility loop obtained for X = 0, agrees well with the reported phase diagram for 3MP + D2O in the literature. A comparison between the lower-critical lines obtained for the deuterated and the undeuterated system has been provided. Within error bars, no perceptible dip was observed in the critical line at X = 0.1700 in the case of the system 3MP + D2O + NaBr. Hence, our study does not indicate the presence of a mean-field tricritical point that has been reported at X = 0.1700 in the system 3MP + H2O + NaBr. A large section of Chapter 3 is devoted to the results and discussions of our extensive light-scattering experiments on the system 3MP + D2O + NaBr. The experiments were performed on 13 different samples of 3MP + D2O + NaBr with NaBr weight fractions in the range of 0 ≤ X ≤ 0.1900. The choice of the X values were guided by the NaBr concentrations at which earlier investigators have done light-scattering experiments on the system 3MP + H2O + NaBr. Detailed light-scattering experiments reveal that the system 3MP + D2O + NaBr shows a simple Ising-type critical behaviour with γ ' 1.24 and ν ' 0.63 over the entire NaBr concentration range 0 ≤ X ≤ 0.1900. The crossover behaviour is predominantly nonmonotonic, and the crossover is completed well outside the critical domain. An analysis in terms of the effective susceptibility exponent (γeff) showed that the crossover behaviour is nonmonotonic for 0 ≤ X ≤ 0.1793 and tends to become monotonic for X > 0.1793. The correlation length amplitude, ξo, has a value of (Formula) for 0.0250 < X ≤ 0.1900, whereas for (Formula). Since isotopic H—> D substitution is not expected to change the critical behaviour of the system, our results shows that the system 3MP + H2O + NaBr should exhibit universal Ising-type critical behaviour that is typical for aqueous solutions. Our search for a new system in which a quadruple critical point (QCP) could possibly be realized forms the subject matter of the Chapter 4 of the thesis. The system methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) + water (W) + secondary butyl alcohol (sBA) is identified as a very promising candidate-system for this purpose. The chapter begins with a brief survey of the various types of multicritical points and special critical points realizable in multicomponent liquid mixtures. The importance of investigating special critical points such as the QCP is motivated. A detailed coexistence surface for MEK + W + sBA was developed by generating the coexistence curves corresponding to five different, but onstant, values of MEK weight fractions XM = 0.0500, 0.1000, 0.1750, 0.2300, and 0.3000, respectively. The complete isobaric coexistence surface (at 1 atm) for the system MEK + W + sBA was visualized in the form of a prismatic phase diagram. The surface is found to display a tunnel-like appearance in the MEK weight fraction range of 0.0500 ≤ XM ≤ 0.1750, with the tunnel being the narrowest at the point (XM,XW,XSBA) = (0.1750, 0.5801, 0.2449), where, xw and XSBA are, respectively, the weight fractions of water and sBA in the mixture. An analysis of the order parameter data showed that MEK + W + sBA shows near Ising-type of critical behaviour near their upper critical solution temperatures, TU's. It was seen that the critical temperature Tc shows a low drift with time (Formula)/day and that the tunnel-like portion in the phase diagram of MEK + W + sBA was very symmetric. These two features make (MEK + W + sBA) a considerably more promising system than (3MP + W + HW + KI )for the realization of the QCP. It may be recalled that 3MP + W + HW + KI is the only system in which QCP studies have been reported so far in literature. The light-scattering investigations in MEK + W + sBA near the lower critical solution temperatures TL are described next. We corrected our light-scattering data for both turbidity as well as double-scattering effects. Our experiments revealed that (MEK + W + sBA) shows near three-dimensional-Ising type of critical behaviour at the lower critical solution temperatures, with the susceptibility exponent (γ) in the range of 1.217 ≤ γ ≤ 1.246. The correlation length amplitudes (ξo) and the critical exponent (ν) of the correlation length (ξ) were in the ranges of 3.536 ≤ ξo ≤ 4.611 A and 0.619 ≤ ν ≤ 0.633, respectively. An analysis in terms of the effective susceptibility exponent (γeff) results in the interesting result, namely that, the critical behaviour of (MEK + W + sBA ) is of the Ising-type for MEK concentrations in the ranges of 0.1000 ≤ XM ≤ 0.1250 and XM ≥ 0.3000; but, for the intermediate range of 0.1750 < XM < 0.3000, the system shows a tendency towards mean-field type of critical behaviour. This behaviour is interesting because both the constituent binary systems of the ternary system (MEK + W + sBA), namely, (MEK + W) and (W + sBA) show Ising-type of critical behaviour. Chapter 5 discusses another crucial objective of this thesis, namely, the fabrication and characterization of a microkelvin thermostat, which has been built for the purpose of performing light-scattering studies exceptionally close to the critical temperature. At the outset, the need for a temperature stability of the order of a few microkelvin for performing reliable critical point phenomena experiments very close to the critical point, is justified and demonstrated. This is followed by an in-depth account of the thermal design of the thermostat and the electronic circuitry used in the temperature controller. The variations in the ambient temperature and the stability of the bridge excitation source are identified and demonstrated to be crucial factors that affect the long-term temperature stability of the thermostat. A simple compensation scheme to nullify the effects of ambient temprature variations on the controller performance is suggested. It is demonstrated that the thermostat gives a temperature stability of (Formula) and ±60−90 µK for 7 − 14 h over a broad range of 25 − 103 °C. A detailed profile of thermal gradients within the sample recess is provided. It is shown that the parameter ∆Teff [i.e., the difference between the maximum (minimum if ∆Teff has a negative value) temperature within the sample recess and the temperature just outside the sample recess] is a more relevant parameter than ∆T (i.e., the temperature difference between the inner and the outer stages) in understanding the behaviour of multistage thermostats. The most important result that emerges from our study is that the thermal gradients and the transient response of the controller, can both be tuned by varying ∆Teff (or by varying ∆T). The best horizontal and vertical thermal gradient performance observed within our thermostat were 250 and 100 µK/mm, respectively, which are observed for a ∆Teff = 4.46 mK. The transient response of the controller is almost invariant for ∆Teff > 0 but it shows a dramatic decrease of almost 50% when ∆Teff < 0. It is seen that, the limit ∆Teff →>• 0, provides the best operating conditions of the thermostat from the standpoints of temperature stability, transient response and gradient performance. An error analysis relevant to the circuitry used by us is provided at the end of the chapter, which clearly indicates the efficacy of the compensations scheme proposed by us to nullify the effects of ambient temperature variations. Chapter 6 summarizes the important results obtained in this thesis. It also presents a range of open problems that need to be explored further in order to fully understand the results that are reported in this thesis, especially, regarding the type of crossover behaviour seen in the systems 3MP + D2O + NaBr and MEK + W + sBA.

Master's thesis deals with a design of the thermostat for biological experiments considering 2l of volume, with capability of setting up required temperature between 20-40 degree Celsius and related accuracy of measurement +/- 1 degree Celsius. Following chapters are one by one described and properly explained from possible ways of measuring temperature to final implementation. Result of the thesis presents necessarily calculations, discussion of module's performance modeling, schematics together with PCB's design and the list of components. Neither the question of software nor possibilities of realization is neglected.

The aim of the study was to design, build and experimentally verify a programmable thermostat. The main control unit of the thermostat is an ATmega168 microcontroller which communicates via I2C bus with remote MAX6615 chips. They are used to measure temperature with a set of thermistors and control the flow of the hot water in the heating system. This work deals with issues of remote control through the I2C bus, servomotor steering, precision temperature measurement and describes the inner workings of the system. The next chapter includes a proposal for possible extension of the system. The last part contains the manual of the control menu structure and a brief description of the software.

The aim of my thesis is to understand the manufactured thermostats and design own thermostat to allow the most basic possibilities classical thermostats plus setup and management via web interface. It is a realization of a small web server that works closely with hardware peripherals. In addition, the web interface is still possible to manage a Web server of TFT LCD screen or applications for smart phone with Android. In addition, the thermostat allows the temperature reading from the BLE modules. All temperatures are continuously stored in a database and graphically processed.

<div>Currently, people in North America spend roughly 90% of their time indoors. Therefore, it is important to create comfortable, healthy, and productive indoor environments for the occupants. Unfortunately, our resulting indoor environments are still very poor, especially in multi-occupant rooms. In addition, energy consumption in residential and commercial buildings by HVAC systems and lighting accounts for about 41% of primary energy use in the US. However, the current methods for simulating building energy consumption are often not accurate, and various types of occupant behavior may explain this inaccuracy.</div><div>This study first developed artificial neural network models for predicting thermal comfort and occupant behavior in indoor environments. The models were trained by data on indoor environmental parameters, thermal sensations, and occupant behavior collected in ten offices and ten houses/apartments. The models were able to predict similar acceptable air temperature ranges in offices, from 20.6 °C to 25 °C in winter and from 20.6 °C to 25.6 °C in summer. We also found that the comfortable air temperature in the residences was 1.7 °C lower than that in the offices in winter, and 1.7 °C higher in summer. The reason for this difference may be that the occupants of the houses/apartments were responsible for paying their energy bills. The comfort zone obtained by the ANN model using thermal sensations in the ten offices was narrower than the comfort zone in ASHRAE Standard 55, but that using behaviors was wider.</div><div>Then this study used the EnergyPlus program to simulate the energy consumption of HVAC systems in office buildings. Measured energy data were used to validate the simulated results. When using the collected behavior from the offices, the difference between the simulated results and the measured data was less than 13%. When a behavioral ANN model was implemented in the energy simulation, the simulation performed similarly. However, energy simulation using constant thermostat set point without considering occupant behavior was not accurate. Further simulations demonstrated that adjusting the thermostat set point and the clothing could lead to a 25% variation in energy use in interior offices and 15% in exterior offices. Finally, energy consumption could be reduced by 30% with thermostat setback control and 70% with occupancy control.</div><div>Because of many contextual factors, most previous studies have built data-driven behavior models with limited scalability and generalization capability. This investigation built a policy-based reinforcement learning (RL) model for the behavior of adjusting the thermostat and clothing level. We used Q-learning to train the model and validated with collected data. After training, the model predicted the behavior with R2 from 0.75 to 0.80 in an office building. This study also transferred the behavior knowledge of the RL model to other office buildings with different HVAC control systems. The transfer learning model predicted with R2 from 0.73 to 0.80. Going from office buildings to residential buildings, the transfer learning model also had an R2 over 0.60. Therefore, the RL model combined with transfer learning was able to predict the building occupant behavior accurately with good scalability, and without the need for data collection.<br></div><div><div>Unsuitable thermostat settings lead to energy waste and an undesirable indoor environment, especially in multi-occupant rooms. This study aimed to develop an HVAC control strategy in multi-occupant offices using physiological parameters measured by wristbands. We used an ANN model to predict thermal sensation from air temperature, relative humidity, clothing level, wrist skin temperature, skin relative humidity and heart rate. Next, we developed a control strategy to improve the thermal comfort of all the occupants in the room. The control system was smart and could adjust the thermostat set point automatically in real time. We improved the occupants’ thermal comfort level that over half of the occupants reported feeling neutral, and fewer than 5% still felt uncomfortable. After coupling with occupancy-based control by means of lighting sensors or wristband Bluetooth, the heating and cooling loads were reduced by 90% and 30%, respectively. Therefore, the smart HVAC control system can effectively control the indoor environment for thermal comfort and energy saving.</div><div>As for proposed studies in the future, at first, we will use more advanced sensors to collect more kinds of occupant behavior-related data. We will expand the research on more occupant behavior related to indoor air quality, noise and illuminance level. We can use these data to recognize behavior instead of questionnaire survey now. We will also develop a personalized zonal control system for the multi-occupant office. We can find the number and location of inlet diffusers by using inverse design.</div></div>

This study explored energy-related attitudes and energy-saving behaviors that are no- or low-cost and relatively simple to perform. This study relied on two data sources: a longitudinal but cross-sectional survey of 4,102 U.S. residents (five biennial waves of this survey were conducted from 2002 to 2010) and a 2010 cross-sectional survey of 2,000 California residents. These two surveys contained data on two no- and low-cost behaviors: changing thermostat setting to save energy (no-cost behavior) and CFL installation behavior (low-cost behavior). In terms of attitudes, two attitudinal measures emerged from these data following a Cronbach's alpha and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): the pro-environmental attitude and concern for the energy use in the U.S. society. These two attitudes, along with other socio-demographic and external factors (home ownership, weather, price of energy, etc.), were examined to assess whether attitude-behavior relationships persisted over time, were more prominent across certain groups, or were constrained by income or other socio-demographic factors. Three theoretical viewpoints of how attitudes may relate to behavior guided the analysis on how attitudes and contextual factors may inter-relate either directly or through a moderator variable to affect thermostat-setting and CFL installation behavior. Results from these analyses revealed four important patterns. First, a relationship between the pro-environmental attitude and the two behaviors (thermostat-setting and CFL installation behavior) was weak but persistent across time. Second, financial factors such as income moderated the pro-environmental attitude and CFL installation relationship, indicating that the pro-environmental attitude could influence the behavior in those situations where financial resources are sufficient to comfortably allow the consumer to participate. Third, this study documented that most people reported changing thermostat settings to save energy or having one or more CFLs in their homes. This finding suggests that organizations, policy makers, or energy efficiency program administrators may want to assess whether they should pursue these two behaviors further, since they appear to be very common in the U.S. population. Last, this study showed that thermostat-setting and CFL installation behavior have multi-factorial influences; many factors in addition to attitudes were significantly associated with these behaviors, and all these factors together explained no more than 16% of behavioral variance. This suggested that if energy-saving behaviors are a function of many different variables, of which none appear to be the "silver bullet" in explaining the behaviors (as noted in this study), then policy analysis should explore a broader number of causal pathways and entertain a wider range of interventions to influence consumers to save energy.

No description available.

В первом разделе работы рассмотрены факторы, определяющие климатические условия в помещении и методика расчета теплопотерь. Также приведено описание современных способов регулирования температуры в помещении и рассмотрены два реализованных алгоритма для управления температурным режимом в помещении, основанные на математическом анализе и на базе нечеткой логике. Во втором разделе рассматривается тепловая модель здания для традиционной системы регулирования температуры, реализованная в Matlab-Simulink. По рассмотренной модели проведен сравнительный анализ использования различного вида регуляторов и его выбор для реализации интеллектуальной системы управления температурным режимом. В третьем разделе описана реализация алгоритма для предикции температуры на базе нейронных сетей. А также представлено описание реализации аппаратной и программной части интеллектуальной системы. / In the first section of the dissertation, the factors that determine the climatic conditions in the room and the method for calculating heat loss are considered. It also provides a description of modern methods of room temperature control and considers two implemented algorithms for controlling the temperature regime in a room, based on mathematical analysis and on the basis of fuzzy logic. The second section examines a building thermal model for a traditional temperature control system implemented in Matlab-Simulink. Based on the considered model, a comparative analysis of the use of various types of controllers and its choice for the implementation of an intelligent temperature control system is carried out. The third section describes the implementation of an algorithm for predicting temperature based on neural networks. It also provides a description of the implementation of the hardware and software of the intelligent system.