Smart Integration and Control Strategies for Multi-Fuel Residential Hybrid Integrated HVAC Systems

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The objective of the project is to investigate and evaluate the smart integration and control strategy of two sets of hybrid residential natural gas-electric HVAC systems for simultaneous reduction of energy cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission while providing remote equipment diagnostics capability for predictive maintenance. The proposed system will utilize the cloud computing platform, ICT, IoT sensors, wifi-connected thermostat, and AI/ML/data analytic techniques to develop such controller. The studied hybrid HVAC systems include 1) an air source heat pump (ASHP) and a natural gas furnace and 2) a cold climate ASHP, a tankless natural gas water heater, and an electric hot water tank all coupled with a variable capacity hydronic air handling unit. To address these challenges, Cricket Energy and Ryerson University are collaborating to develop a smart HVAC controller that can be implemented and deployed in residential homes to 1) optimally decide whether an electrically driven ASHP or a natural gas furnace/boiler should be used on a real-time (hourly) basis, utilizing temporal information on space heating demand, equipment capacities and efficiencies, energy pricings, and short-term weather forecasts and 2) provide remote equipment diagnostics for preventive maintenances using data analytics. This system could also be linked to the local utility's demand response (DR) system for full integration and participation with local smart grid infrastructure, thus, offering even greater flexibility and benefit to both home owners and utilities. The expected cloud-based smart predictive residential HVAC control system will offer a user-friendly cost saving opportunity to home owners while enabling the industry partner to create new subscription-based services for remote equipment diagnostics and predictive maintenance. Therefore, the proposed system will be benefical to both home owners, by having a more flexible energy supply at a lower energy cost, and utilities (electric, natural gas, and service provider/aggregator) alike. For the society, more natural gas being displaced by the clean source of electricity (such as in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Manitoba) for heating will translate into lower overall GHG emission.