Influence of duration of thermal comfort provision on heating behavior of buildings

Because of the permanent dilemma whether residential buildings using district heating should be heated continually or discontinuously, we evaluated how the yearly heating load and the peak heating load of a small building in Serbia depend on the duration of thermal comfort provision. Using HTB2 software, a product of the Welsh School of Architecture, it was found that an increase in the duration of thermal comfort provision in the building from 16 h to 24 h increases the yearly heating load by 20%, reduces the peak heating load by up to 40% and may increase the number of new customers served with the same heating plant by up to 40%.