The Influence of Air Heating and Lighting on the Comfort Conditions in NZEB Buildings’ Rooms

Abstract

Near zero energy buildings (NZEB) and passive buildings are designed to minimize the energy consumption. The building’s “almost zero energy demand” standard, which will be in force in Europe from 2021, additionally imposes an obligation on buildings to use the energy from renewable sources. It should be remembered that in addition to the applicable criteria for NZEB buildings, the comfort of use of the rooms is equally important. The development of low-energy buildings resulted in new products and technologies on the construction and installation materials market. Radiator heating is increasingly being abandoned for surface or air heating. In the lighting industry, which also generates the energy consumption, products based on LED technology are developing. Both new heating and lighting systems have a very large impact on the comfort of using NZEB buildings. In this article, the Authors will present the results of “in situ” research regarding the feeling of comfort in an office space heated using fan coil units. The ventilation system also influences the feeling of comfort. The location of the ventilators in the room and the stream of supply air may cause discomfort. The authors will check the comfort conditions in different places of the room, including the propagation of the air stream. Additionally, the Authors will determine the minimum operating temperature of work comfort in the tested room, with the air heating. The second research task of this article will be to determine the visual comfort of people, when using recommended illuminance. The aim of the article is to answer the question of how to design workplaces in an air-heated room and how to design lighting to optimize the work comfort and energy consumption. The conclusions from the article will allow formulating the principles for the design of NZEB buildings.