An experimental study on an inferential control scheme for optimising the control of boilers in multi-zone heating system

An experiment was carried out over two heating seasons to test the performance of an inferential control scheme (ICS), which was designed to optimise the control of boilers in multi-zone heating systems [Building Services Engineering Research and Technology 4 (2003) 245], in a real installation. This paper presents the development of the prototype controller, method and result of the experimental testing. The experimental results show that the ICS can significantly improve the long-term performance, i.e. energy efficiency and thermal comfort, of the multi-zone heating system compared with conventional control schemes. It also demonstrates that the ICS can be implemented in a microprocessor-based controller and be commissioned using short-term monitoring data, which makes it a practical control technique.