Simultaneous optimization of configuration and controller parameters in an integrated solar thermal hydronic system

This paper proposes a method to optimize simultaneously the configuration and the controller in a solar domestic hot water system, which is an instance of an integrated thermal hydronic system. The system consists of five main components, a solar thermal collector, an air-to-water heat pump, a thermal storage tank, and two heat exchangers. The thermal energy is transferred through the fluid circulating in pipes. For this system, a state-space model is built, and an energy optimization problem is formulated. The problem is numerically solved by the gradient-descent method. Simulation results confirm the usefulness of the proposed optimization method in enhancing the overall system performance. The importance of the simultaneous optimization of both the system configuration and the controller is also demonstrated.