Heat Transfer Research of a New Type of Radiant Floor Heating System

Abstract

In China, the energy policy of switching charcoal heating to electric heating is pushing hard. Radiant floor heating system (RFHS) with air-source heat pump system is considered to be a suitable scheme for energy retrofit. A new type of lightweight RFHS with the aluminum layer is put forward in this article, which has the benefit of lowering the supply water temperature by enhancing the heat transfer performance and homogenizing the floor surface temperature distribution. The theoretical model of the new lightweight RFHS is built and solved by the Matlab program. Experiments are conducted to study the thermal performance of the RFHS and verify the theoretical model. The effects of supply water temperature and water flow velocity on the thermal performances of the new RFHS are studied. Then, the effects of aluminum layer on the heat transfer performance of the new system are researched. Finally, comparative research of the new lightweight RFHS and traditional heavy RFHS is carried out. The results show that the average floor surface temperature, heat transfer rate, and annual exploitation cost of the new RFHS are all better than the traditional one.