Experimental testing of cooling internal loads with a radiant wall

Thermally activated building systems (TABS) consist of pipes or ducts embedded in the building structure. This is a well-known technology for its capability to reduce energy use for cooling buildings. Additionally, TABS help integrating renewable energies, such as free-cooling with ground heat exchangers (GHE). However, TABS cooling load is sensitive to the internal load, and the use of GHE for free cooling is limited to low energy buildings. In a previously published research, a radiant wall cubicle without internal gains demonstrated to achieve significant energy savings. However, the current research showed that under domestic and office scheduled internal gains equivalent to 42 W m(-2) the radiant cubicle increased its energy consumption for cooling more than the reference cubicle with air-to-air heat pumps: As a result, the radiant cubicle used around 20% more energy than the reference at air temperature set-point 24 degrees C but saved around 20% compared to the reference at 26 degrees C. Despite this, the radiant wall could still reduce the cooling cost through peak load shifting even though it showed to consume more energy than a conventional HP. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.