Performances of low temperature radiant heating systems

This paper reports investigations of energy, environmental, and economic performances of floor, wall, ceiling, and floor–ceiling heating. It is found that the floor–ceiling heating has the best performances: the lowest energy and exergy consumption, exergy destruction, CO2 emissions (compound, direct, and avoidable), and operation costs. In addition, it uses boiler of the lowest power. The worst system by all these parameters is the classical ceiling heating.The comparison of the room operative air temperatures and the operative air temperatures set by thermostats shows that all systems give satisfactory results without significant deviations. The largest deviation and the lowest values of the surrounding inner surfaces of the exterior walls are found for the floor–ceiling ceiling panel system.

► The floor, wall, ceiling, and floor–ceiling panel heating systems are compared.
► The floor–ceiling heating has the lowest energy, and exergy consumption.
► The floor–ceiling heating has the lowest CO2 emissions, and operation costs.
► The floor–ceiling heating uses a boiler of the lowest power.
► The worst heating by all these parameters is the classical ceiling heating.