Evaluation and comparison of thermal comfort of convective and radiant heating terminals in office buildings

Abstract

Radiant heating systems are increasingly widely utilized in buildings for its energy conservation potential and enhanced thermal comfort. This paper presented an experiment to compare the thermal comfort performance of radiant heating system with convective heating system through objective measurement and subjective survey. Six physical parameters which might influence occupants’ thermal satisfaction, including the Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT), humidity, air movement, A-weighted sound level, temperature fluctuation and vertical temperature difference, were measured. In addition, 97 subjects participated in the subjective survey part of this experiment, experiencing all the three environments heated by air source heat pump, radiator and floor heating. And they were asked to vote in six thermal comfort related aspects, i.e. thermal sensation, humidity, draught, local discomfort, overall thermal satisfaction and overall preferences, plus the acoustic environment, since the operation noise of heating system might lead to complains of the occupants. It was found that in continuous heating, no significant difference between radiant and convective heating system was observed in the Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT), indoor humidity and noise issue. Though radiant heating systems resulted in lower draught risk and less local discomfort complains in the feet region due to the less significant temperature fluctuations and vertical temperature gradients, radiant heating did not have significantly higher overall thermal satisfaction votes and was not significantly more preferred by occupants.