Thermal behaviour prediction utilizing artificial neural networks for an open office

This study investigates a neural network-based non-linear autoregressive model with external inputs (NNARX), a non-linear autoregressive moving average model with external inputs (NNARMAX), and a non-linear output error model (NNOE) to predict the thermal behaviour of an open-plan office in a modern commercial building. External and internal climate data recorded over one summer, autumn and winter season were used to build and validate the models. The paper illustrates the potential of using these models to predict room temperature and relative humidity for different time scales ahead (30 min or 2 h ahead). The prediction performance is evaluated using the criteria of goodness of fit, coefficient of determination, mean absolute error and mean squared error between predicted model output and real measurements. To obtain an optimal network structure (avoiding overfitting) after training, a pruning algorithm called optimal brain surgeon (OBS) was used to remove unnecessary input signals, weights and hidden neurons. The results demonstrate that all models provide reasonably good predictions but the NNARX and NNARMAX models outperform the NNOE model. These models can all potentially be used for improving the performance of thermal environment control systems.