Intelligent Control of a Domestic Solar Water Heating System with Thermal Storage Using Fuzzy Logic-Modified Model Predictive Controller

One of the developing applications of solar energy in the domestic sector is the water heating system, which heats the home's inside air through radiators, especially in cold seasons. The main challenge of this system is controlling the operative temperature profiles. Conventional controllers like PI cannot accurately control this system due to the system's disturbance inputs and delay. To cope with this challenge, a modified model predictive control (MMPC) is proposed in this paper to control the temperature parameters. The fuzzy logic control (FLC) is also exploited to calculate the state variable references. The accuracy of the proposed controller in regulating the temperature parameters according to the reference values is proven through the simulations in MATLAB/Simulink. Furthermore, the traditional MPC is also implemented to verify the performance of the proposed control model. The simulation results confirm that the proposed FLC-MMPC controller tracks the references with considerably higher speed and accuracy.