# On the round-trip efficiency of an HVAC-based virtual battery

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.02883 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.02883/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 7 Mar 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Lessons learned from field demonstrations of model predictive control and reinforcement learning for residential and commercial HVAC: A review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.05022/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Flexible loads, especially heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems can be used to provide a battery-like service to the power grid by varying their demand up and down over a baseline. Recent work has reported that providing virtual energy storage with HVAC systems lead to a net loss of energy, akin to a low round-trip efficiency (RTE) of a battery. In this work we rigorously analyze the RTE of a virtual battery through a simplified physics-based model. We show that the low RTEs reported in recent experimental and simulation work are an artifact of the experimental/simulation setup. When the HVAC system is repeatedly used as a virtual battery, the asymptotic RTE is 1. Robustness of the result to assumptions made in the analysis is illustrated through a simulation case study.