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Radiant based Cooling Systems
and Equipment - Part III
The Total (Radiant) Heating
and Cooling Comfort System.
(ala Geoff McDonell, P.Eng. LEED Ap)
There is a system for radiant
based HVAC and its called a Total Heating and Cooling
Comfort System. Some call it a hybrid or a combo system but
these names don't describe what it is. What it is - is a
Total Heating and Cooling Comfort System.
All of the nitty gritty
details are described in the Home Owners Guide to
Indoor Comfort Quality but essentially you have heated
and cooled water available to send into the
floor/walls/ceilings to either absorb or release radiant
energy for comfort conditioning and to raise or lower the
ventilation air temperature for dehumidifying and
supplemental heating and cooling.
The Total Heating and Cooling
Comfort System looks like the drawing below and in an
average sized 2400 sf home would occupy less space than the
equivalent kitchen area in the same home.
So that is the short strokes on cooling with radiant.
Take the humidity down to 45% RH, keep the surface
temperatures above 66 deg F and any cooled surface can
absorb the following amounts of sensible heat based on a 76
deg F room temperature:
Cooled
Floors can absorb ≈ 12
Btu/hr/sf of sensible heat.
Cooled
Wall can absorb ≈
14 Btu/hr/sf of sensible heat.
Cooled
Ceiling can absorb ≈ 19
Btu/hr/sf of sensible heat.
≈ means "approximately"
Click here for more
details on radiant panel performance.
If your home has sensible loads greater than these value
then you must improve your homes efficiency, or accept that
occasionally the room will get warmer than 76 deg F or use
the ventilation system to deliver supplemental cooling. All
latent cooling must be done with the ventilation system.
If you have any other questions drop by the online forum
(see link) to ask our experts.
go to part I -
click here
Introduction
go to part II -
click
here, Controlling the Relative
Humidity
go to part IV - click here, Radiant Cooling Educational Movie Clips
go to part V - click here, Featured Project, Manitoba Hydro Office Building
See some really cool graphics on how your body deals with heat.
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