The Impacts of a Building’s Thermal Mass on the Cooling Load of a Radiant System under Various Typical Climates

Rong Hu, Gang Liu and Jianlei Niu
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Rong Hu: School of Architecture and Traffic Engineering, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guangxi 541004, China
Gang Liu: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Jianlei Niu: Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: Cooling load is difficult to predict for a radiant system, because the interaction between a building’s thermal mass and radiation heat gain has not been well defined in a zone with a cooling surface. This study aims to reveal the effect of thermal mass in an external wall on the transmission load in a space with an active cooling surface. We investigated the thermal performances in a typical office building under various weather conditions by dynamic simulation with Energy-Plus. It was found that the thermal mass in the inside concrete layer had positives in terms of indoor temperature performance and energy conservation. The peak cooling load of the hydronic system decreases 28% in the proper operating state, taking into account the effect of the thermal mass in an external wall. Compared to the performances in zones with equivalent convective air systems (CASs), the peak cooling load and the accumulated load of the combined system (radiant system coupled by fresh air system) are higher by 9%–11% and 3%–4%, respectively. The effect of thermal mass is evident in a transient season with mild weather, when the relative effects are about 45% and 60%, respectively, for a building with radiant systems and a building with equivalent CASs.

Keywords: thermal mass; thermal inertia; radiant cooling system; energy conservation; energy simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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