A smart air-conditioning plant for efficient energy buildings

The spread of renewable energy technologies in the building sector has produced the new figure of “prosumer”, able to consume and produce energy simultaneously. In this context, a correct management of the energy fluxes is required to increase user remuneration. All of this, paired with the use of the emergent IoT technologies, allowed the realization of a Smart Ecosystem devoted to make effective the process of producing, storing and consuming energy. Considering PV generators, the self-produced electricity surplus has to be transferred with advantageous conditions, alternatively it has to be stored. Air-conditioning plants employing heat pumps represent a useful option for the rational management of renewable electricity because the same system can be used as an alternative to “electric storage”, cheaper and more reliable than traditional batteries. Heat pumps can be exploited to produce thermal or cooling energy and store it in a suitable tank, though the building does not require them, and to conciliate the time shift between energy demand and offer. In presence of a saturated storage tank, the same building could be used as a further thermal accumulator by exploiting radiant emission systems to activate its thermal mass, by means of either overheating or undercooling strategies. The combination of these solutions allows for noticeable energy and economic savings and a rational use of renewable sources. However, a smart control system is required to make all the various involved devices communicating and coordinating among each other. A smart air conditioning system and the correspondent control strategies adopted for its management, based on the employment of PV driven heat pumps with thermal storage connected to a radiant emission system, is introduced.