Effect of modelling solar radiation on the cooling performance of radiant floors

Results of the simulations show that a simplified model, which considers solar radiation as uniformly distributed in a room, cannot be used for a detailed comfort analysis; however, when looking at the cooling output of a radiant floor system at the design stage, a simplified model can predict energy transfer to a certain level of accuracy. Moreover, results coming from combined measurements and simulations show that the reflectance characteristic of the covering materials does not affect the cooling capacity of the radiant floor systems, since the most important parameter for cooling performance is the thermal conductivity of the covering layer.