Investigating the ability of various buildings in handling load shiftings

In modern constructions of residential buildings, several energy saving technologies exist. Therefore, when such buildings are renovated, various investments can be considered. The contribution of this article is a method for evaluating the ability of several renovating configurations to keep the inhabitants in a comfortable situation during load shifting periods. This question is of importance in the relationship, and then in the price setting, between the users (inhabitants) and the energy provider who uses these load shifting periods to optimize his production on a regional or national scale. The evaluation is performed as follows. We consider a house equipped with electric heaters. Then an optimization method is used to compute, in a dynamical context, best heating strategies. Gradually, the load shifting period is made longer, and, thus, the weather conditions and the comfort constraints serve to characterize the actual ability of the building to guarantee an acceptable comfort during load shifting periods. One conclusion is that for poorly insulated houses (which represents approximately 58% of the French stock) it is impossible to shift the load more than 20 minutes in winter time, even when using advanced regulation strategy of the electric heating system. On the other hand, other configurations are much better suited as illustrated in this article.