Flow patterns and thermal comfort in a room with panel, floor and wall heating

Thermal comfort aspects in a room vary with different space heating methods. The main focus in this study was how different heating systems and their position affect the indoor climate in an exhaust-ventilated office under Swedish winter conditions. The heat emitters used were a high and a medium-high temperature radiator, a floor heating system and large wall heating surfaces at low temperature. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were used to investigate possible cold draught problems, differences in vertical temperature gradients, air speed levels and energy consumption. Two office rooms with different ventilation systems and heating needs were evaluated. Both systems had high air exchange rates and cold infiltration air. The general conclusions from this study were that low temperature heating systems may improve indoor climate, giving lower air speeds and lower temperature differences in the room than a conventional high temperature radiator system. The disadvantage with low temperature systems is a weakness in counteracting cold down-flow from ventilation supply units. For that reason the location of heat emitters and the design of ventilation systems proved to be of particular importance. Measurements performed in a test chamber were used to validate the results from the CFD simulations. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.