Energy Saving Potentials of Radiant Floor Heating Systems Based on Control Strategies

바닥 복사 난방 시스템의 제어전략에 따른 에너지 사용량 분석

The dominant heating system used in Korean residential apartment buildings is a hydronic radiant floor heating system, known as the Ondol system. The most common control strategy applied to this traditional hydronic radiant system is a simple on-off control that intermittently supplies "hot water of a fixed temperature" at a "constant flow rate" to each room. However, the current problems with the aforementioned control are as follows: (1) since the simple on-off control is usually based on a one point measured temperature (a signal from a thermostat installed in a living room) in each dwelling unit, heating energy use for unoccupied rooms as well as a difference in temperatures between spaces (master bedroom, living room, bedroom1, bedroom2) can occur occasionally. (2) the most widely used residential water splitter has static valves, and is thus not able to change the flow rate to each room depending on the space heating load. In other words, the ratio of flow rates to rooms is fixed after construction, resulting in over- or under-heating and an improper use of energy. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate the differences in the system's performance between control strategies in terms of the flow rate control and sensor location. It is shown that energy savings of control strategies are strongly influenced by occupant schedule.