A study of photovoltaic/thermal (PVT)-ground source heat pump hybrid system by using fuzzy logic control

Renewable Heat Obligation (RHO) implementation in every country becomes an important issue to utilize more renewable energy sources while reducing the usage of fossil fuel. In 2014, South Korea has a target that every commercial building construction that exceeding 10,000 m² has to have on-site new & renewable power generation such as combined heat in the beginning of 2016. Photovoltaic/Thermal (PVT) and Geothermal hybrid systems have been introduced in previous research (E.J. Lee et al.) and it showed a great result from its efficiency and also its power consumption for single and multi-building cases. In this paper, Fuzzy Logic control has been applied to optimize the energy consumption of the system. By comparing it with conventional on–off control, fuzzy logic control system shows a better result in reducing primary energy consumption for both heating and cooling systems annually. Two cases were introduced in this paper, GSHP system and PVT–GSHP system with both on–off and fuzzy logic applied respectively. As a result, it shows that fuzzy logic control consumed 13.3% less energy compared with on–off controller for GSHP system annually and 18.3% less energy compared to on–off controller for PVT–GSHP system annually. - Highlights: • Two renewable systems were designed to produce heating, cooling and electricity. • System optimization by applying Fuzzy Logic in terms of energy saving. • Conventional on–off control system vs advance fuzzy logic control system. • Assumption used based on previous research experience, guidelines.