Mixed integer programming for HVACs operation

Mixed integer programming (MIP) problems are formulated in this paper to model the operation of residential Heating Ventilation and Air-Conditioning Systems (HVAC). The objective is to minimize the total cost of the HVAC energy consumption under varying electricity prices. A simplified model of a space cooling system considering thermal dynamics is adopted. The optimization problems consider 24 hour operation of HVAC. Comfort/cost trade-off is modeled by introducing a binary variable. The big-M technique is adopted to obtain linear constraints while considering this binary variable. The MIP problems are solved by CPLEX. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of HVAC´s ability to respond to varying electricity price.