Integrating air conditioning (AC) systems with thermal energy storage (TES) offers a promising solution for managing large buildings' peak load demands and energy efficiency. Predicting the performance of the AC-TES is a significant index in ensuring optimal cooling load and energy consumption. However, conventional approaches encounter challenges in achieving high levels of accuracy, reliability, and scalability. Therefore, this study introduces leveraging machine learning techniques and in-situ measurements for precise predicting the energy performance of AC-TES system in a semi-arid climate building. The study proposes a hybrid prediction strategy leveraging the benefits of machine learning and meta-heuristic optimization algorithms. The proposed approach integrates a Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) with the Fire Hawk Optimizer (FHO) for predicting the performance parameters of the AC-TES system; including, energy consumption, cooling load, air room temperature and performance coefficient (COP). The RBFNN framework in the developed strategy is trained to identify intricate patterns and correlations within the data, while the FHO is utilized to explore the optimal hyperparameters of the RBFNN for maximizing the prediction accuracy. The proposed strategy was modelled in MATLAB software and validated using a publicly available measurements for the AC-TES system. The system maintained improved cooling performance in which the average daily values of energy consumption, cooling load, air room temperature and COP are 1100 kWh/hr, 1.30 kW, 23.97 oC, and 3.12, respectively. The statistical outcomes depict that the developed RBFNN-FHO strategy achieved an impressive prediction accuracy of 95.81% accuracy, a 0.94 correlation coefficient, a 0.4193 mean absolute error (MAE), and a 0.5200 root mean square error (RMSE), respectively. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed RBFNN-FHO is model, is compared with the existing machine-learning approaches utilized for predicting the dynamic performances of HVAC systems. The comparative analysis with existing techniques highlights the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed RBFNN-FHO strategy in predicting AC-TES performances.
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