A contextual quality-diversity evolutionary RL controller matches a single soft actor-critic policy on annual energy (about 3.4% savings over ASHRAE Guideline 36 in simulation) but with 272 times lower seed-to-seed variance in chiller starts.
Multi-zone HVAC Control with Model-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning
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abstract
In this paper, we conduct a set of experiments to analyze the limitations of current MBRL-based HVAC control methods, in terms of model uncertainty and controller effectiveness. Using the lessons learned, we develop MB2C, a novel MBRL-based HVAC control system that can achieve high control performance with excellent sample efficiency. MB2C learns the building dynamics by employing an ensemble of environment-conditioned neural networks. It then applies a new control method, Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI), for HVAC control. It produces candidate action sequences by using an importance sampling weighted algorithm that scales better to high state and action dimensions of multi-zone buildings. We evaluate MB2C using EnergyPlus simulations in a five-zone office building. The results show that MB2C can achieve 8.23% more energy savings compared to the state-of-the-art MBRL solution while maintaining similar thermal comfort. MB2C can reduce the training data set by an order of magnitude (10.52x) while achieving comparable performance to MFRL approaches.
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cs.LG 1years
2026 1verdicts
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Contextual Quality-Diversity Evolutionary Reinforcement Learning for HVAC Control in Tropical Commercial Buildings
A contextual quality-diversity evolutionary RL controller matches a single soft actor-critic policy on annual energy (about 3.4% savings over ASHRAE Guideline 36 in simulation) but with 272 times lower seed-to-seed variance in chiller starts.