Hybrid Model for Forecasting Indoor CO2 Concentration

Indoor CO₂ concentration is considered a metric of indoor air quality that affects the health of occupants. In this study, a hybrid model was developed for forecasting the varying indoor CO₂ concentration levels in a residential apartment unit in the presence of occupants by controlling the ventilation rates of a heat recovery ventilator. In this model, the mass balance equation for a single zone as a white-box model was combined with a Bayesian neural network (BNN) as a black box model. During the learning process of the hybrid model, the BNN estimated an aggregated unknown ventilation rate and transferred the estimation to the mass-balance equation. A parametric study was conducted by changing the prediction horizons of the hybrid model from 5 to 15 min, and the forecasting performance of the hybrid model was compared with the stand-alone mass balance equation. The hybrid model showed better forecasting performance than that of the mass balance equation on the experimental dataset for a living room and bedroom. The average MBE and CVRMSE of the hybrid model for the prediction horizon of 15 min were 0.65% and 5.23%, respectively, whereas those of the mass balance equation were 0.99% and 9.30%, respectively.

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