Radiant capillary heat exchangers – power calculation for optimal heating and cooling

Abstract The issue of switching to renewable energy sources becomes very actual and it is important not only to change the energy source, but also the reduce the final energy needs by improving the energy efficiency of buildings and usage of efficient heating systems. Heat pumps as the most popular renewable energy source are widely used, but their energy efficiency is depending on temperature of the supplied energy carrier. The most efficient are radiant capillary heat exchangers with a large surface area and a low temperature, which typically does not exceed 30°C. Another advantage of radiant capillary heat exchangers is the possibility to operate them in both - heating and cooling modes. Unlike the underfloor heating solution, where the role of thermal convection is very important, the built-in radiant capillary heat exchanger systems provide the energy mainly due to thermal radiation. This study explores two modelling approaches for determination of required power and corresponding area of radiant capillary heat exchangers to be installed in a room to provide heating and cooling: simplified approach, which allows to create the heat balance with a minimum amount of input data and a precise standard-based approach. Calculations were made for three different rooms with variable glazing area and spatial orientation using both approaches. Analysis of the calculation results shows the limits of the simplified method, which overestimates heating need and underestimates cooling need, and the main reason for such differences is simplification of room orientation and subsequent solar heat gains. As the calculated cooling power is less than heating power, therefore the heating estimation is sufficient to estimate the amount of radiant capillary heat exchangers in small/medium rooms for providing both heating and cooling in the climatic conditions of Riga. The use of complex, comprehensive modelling approaches is necessary for rooms with large glazed areas, where the simplified method gives incorrect estimations.