Smart Grid Energy Flexible Buildings through the Use of Heat Pumps in the Belgian Context

The management of electricity grids requires the supply and demand of electricity to be in balance at any point in time. Electricity suppliers tend to minimize their procurement costs by offering consumers time-of-use variable electricity tariffs as an incentive to shift their demand from peak to off-peak hours. Typical new residential buildings are considered, equipped with air-to-water heat pumps that supply either radiators or floor heating system. The energy market is represented through time-varying electricity price profile. Different heating control strategies are compared in terms of thermal comfort, energy use, cost and flexibility, ranging from rule-based to predictive optimized control.