Development of a radiant heating and cooling model for building energy simulation software

Efficient radiant heating and cooling systems are promising technologies in slashing energy bills and improving occupant thermal comfort in buildings with low-energy demands such as houses and residential buildings. However, the thermal performance of radiant systems in buildings has not been fully understood and accounted for in currently available building energy simulation software. The challenging tasks to improve the applicability of radiant systems are the development of an accurate prediction model and its integration in the energy simulation software. This paper addresses the development of a semi-analytical model for radiant heating and cooling systems for integration in energy simulation software that use the one-dimensional numerical modeling to calculate the heat transfer within the building construction assemblies. The model combines the one-dimensional numerical model of the energy simulation software with a two-dimensional analytical model. The advantage of this model over the one-dimensional one is that it accurately predict the contact surface temperature of the circuit-tubing and the adjacent medium, required to compute the boiler/chiller power, and the minimum and maximum ceiling/floor temperatures, required for moisture condensation (ceiling cooling systems), thermal comfort (heating floor systems) and controls. The model predictions for slab-on-grade heating systems compared very well with the results from a full two-dimensional numerical model. Crown Copyright (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.