Test of new control strategies for room temperature control systems fully controllable surroundings for a heating system with radiators

About one third of Germany;s energy demand is used for room heating thus offering a huge potential for energy savings. The development of intelligent home energy systems should optimize the energy consumption of buildings. In Germany the most common way to control the room temperature while heating is to use a thermostatic valve. This temperature-control system is self-sustaining but has no possibility to communicate to the heating system or other devices in the household. For the test and development of new control strategies and the appropriate components a Hardware-in-the-Loop test bench for hydraulic network applications is developed at the E.ON Energy Research Center. This test bench allows the test of a heating system of a flat in a controllable surrounding under dynamic boundary conditions. In this paper the new test bench concept will be described.