A modified zone model for estimating equivalent room thermal capacity

The zone model has been widely applied in control analysis of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to achieve a high building efficiency. This paper proposed a modified zone model which is much simpler in the HVAC system simulation and has the similar accuracy to the complicated simulation model. The proposed model took into consideration the effect of envelop heat reservoir on the room indoor temperature by introducing the thermal admittance of the inner surfaces of the building enclosure. The thermal admittance for the building enclosure was developed based on the building thermal network analytical theory and transfer function method. The efficacy of the proposed model was demonstrated by comparing it with the complicated model — heat balance method (HTB2 program). The predicted results from the proposed model well agreed with those from the complicated simulation. The proposed model can then make the HVAC system dynamic simulation much faster and more acceptable for control design due to its simplicity and efficiency.