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.