Expert system : a versatile tool for the real time control of a solar building

The expert-system approach is well suited to manage complexes heating systems, with various energy sources and different possible strategies of heating or cooling. A specific computer tool is applied on the solar-assisted heat pump system of Fondation Universitaire Luxembourgeoise in Arlon. It is developed around a list of rules of the type : "if…then.." and the code is written in Prolog language. The main difficulty of implementing such tool is the managing of time, because every sensor or actuator reacts in real time and a decision has first to be tested and validated before issuing on-line action on the system. The main advantage of the approach is that expert-system can very easily encapsulate the experimental knowledge of the heating system manager, simply by adding some rules in the rule base.