Study of an electrical heating system with ductless air supply and shape-stabilized PCM for thermal storage

Abstract

A kind of electrical floor heating system with a shape-stabilized phase change material (PCM) which has been studied at Tsinghua University in our previous studies, can provide space heating during the whole day and can be controlled conventionally. However, this is not suitable for office buildings where no space heating is needed at night. The effective control is very important for the heating system in such buildings. In this paper, we studied a kind of new electrical floor heating system with ductless air supply and shape-stabilized PCM for thermal storage in order to overcome the shortcomings of the passive under-floor electric heating system with thermal storage. In this paper, we investigated its thermal performance by experiments and simulation, calculated the effects of various factors and discussed the application feasibility in different climate regions. The results show that the total electrical energy consumption was shifted from the peak period to the off-peak period, which would provide significant economic benefits because of the different day and night electricity tariffs. The system can be designed by choosing PCM with proper melting temperature and be controlled by varying velocity of air supply in different conditions.