Abstract
In this paper, optimal control strategy of the air-conditioning system with slab thermal storage was investigated based on the optimal control theory. An optimal heat output to the plenum chamber and the air-conditioned room was determined based on two kinds of criterion functions. The first one requires small deviation in room air temperature from a set-point value and low energy consumption. It is shown that the optimized control is to store heat through the whole storage time and to increase storage rate gradually with time. As the second case, a criterion that both a deviation of operative temperature from a set-point temperature and the energy consumption should be minimized was adopted. The room air temperature was a little high and the cooling load during storage time was reduced, compared with the results when a criterion function considering only the room air temperature is used.