Extended Residential Heating System Selection Using Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Analytic Network Process with the Perspective of Energy

Abstract

The need for energy increases due to the increasing population and developing technology. The limited energy resources pose incredible difficulties in meeting this rising energy consumption. Heating systems have essential in people's lives in terms of comfort. The design of the systems is critical for people to benefit from these systems under comfortable and economic conditions. In the previous papers, the alternatives of the residential heating system were evaluated using the generalized Choquet integral method with trapezoidal fuzzy numbers [1]. In this paper, the authors assess the alternatives for the residential heating system using an Interval Type-2 Fuzzy ANP methodology. The membership value of Type2 Fuzzy sets can minimize the effects of uncertainties and vagueness. These sets make it probable to model uncertainties directly. The originality of the study comes from the firsttime usage of IT2 FANP methodology in prioritizing the alternatives of residential heating systems. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper in the literature that uses IT2 FANP methodology in this field. The IT2 FANP methodology and the generalized Choquet integral methodology are compared in this study. Therefore, the ranking of alternatives is found as A4 (Radiator Heating Systems) > A3 (Fan Coil Heating Systems) > A1 (Unvented Fuel-Fired Heaters) in both methods. But the first and the second system alternative ranking are displaced as A2 (HVAC Systems)>A5 (Floor Heating Systems) in IT2 FANP methodology, whereas A5 (Floor Heating Systems) > A2 (HVAC Systems) in the generalized Choquet integral methodology with close weights.