Modeling of hydronic radiant cooling of a thermally homeostatic building using a parametric cooling tower

• Investigated cooling of thermally homeostatic buildings in 7 U.S. cities by modeling.
• Natural energy is harnessed by cooling tower to extract heat for building cooling.
• Systematically studied possibility and conditions of using cooling tower in buildings.
• Diurnal ambient temperature amplitude is taken into account in cooling tower cooling.
• Homeostatic building cooling is possible in locations with large ambient T amplitude.

A case is made that while it is important to mitigate dissipative losses associated with heat dissipation and mechanical/electrical resistance for engineering efficiency gain, the “architect” of energy efficiency is the conception of best heat extraction frameworks—which determine the realm of possible efficiency. This precept is applied to building energy efficiency here. Following a proposed process assumption-based design method, which was used for determining the required thermal qualities of building thermal autonomy, this paper continues this line of investigation and applies heat extraction approach investigating the extent of building partial homeostasis and the possibility of full homeostasis by using cooling tower in one summer in seven selected U.S. cities. Cooling tower heat extraction is applied parametrically to hydronically activated radiant-surfaces model-buildings. Instead of sizing equipment as a function of design peak hourly temperature as it is done in heat balance design-approach of selecting HVAC equipment, it is shown that the conditions of using cooling tower depend on both “design-peak” daily-mean temperature and the distribution of diurnal range in hourly temperature (i.e., diurnal temperature amplitude). Our study indicates that homeostatic building with natural cooling (by cooling tower alone) is possible only in locations of special meso-scale climatic condition such as Sacramento, CA. In other locations the use of cooling tower alone can only achieve homeostasis partially.

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