Dynamic method for measuring thermal characteristics of heating devices

Abstract

The central aim of this work is to find a way to know out the heat capacity, which is an inertial characteristic of a heating device. The thermal lag in heating devices is a factor considered in automated systems of indoor climate control. The suggested method to calculate the heat capacity is based on the differential heat-balance equation for the heating device. According to the balance equation, the method comes down to the comparative analysis of thermal and power characteristics of the heating device at different values of the temperature drop (the difference between the average temperature on the surface of the heater and the average room air temperature). The work provides a description of the experimental equipment that can be used to implement the given method, as well as the technique to conduct experiments. Power and temperature characteristics were taken three times, and the results were averaged. The values of the device’s heat capacity were obtained from the averaged characteristics against the six values of the temperature drop. The average heat capacity was calculated and compared with the theoretical value, the deviation was equal to 1.63 %. The method developed offers the advantage of being able to determine the heat capacity of any type of heating device, taking into account their inherent characteristics, including those gained during their lifetime.