Experimental Verification of the Performance of the Floor Cooling System in Comparison with the Ceiling Cooling System While Maintaining Thermal Comfort in the Environment

Department of Power Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zilina, Univerzitna 1, 010 26 Zilina, Slovak Republic

^* Corresponding author: pavol.micko@fstroj.uniza.sk

Abstract

The trend of constantly increasing energy prices can be observed especially in the increased demands on the thermal insulation properties of building structures. The possibilities of reducing the energy intensity of residential buildings also include the right choice of technology for heating, cooling and hot water preparation. Different cooling systems have different proportions of convection and radiant components. This results in a variety of temperature profiles, and thus also directly affect the quality of the environment in terms of thermal comfort. For efficient heating, it is therefore best to choose a cooling system with a minimum temperature gradient in both the horizontal and vertical directions. At the same time, however, the investment costs for the cooling system must be considered. From this point of view, it seems to be most advantageous to use one system for both heating and cooling. From the point of view of comfort, the most suitable choice of cooling system is ceiling cooling. On the contrary, this system is less suitable for heating compared to the floor system. Therefore, if you are considering the design of a system that will be the greater part of the operation for heating the building and during the summer months will be used to increase thermal comfort by cooling in buildings with lower heat loads [1].