Abstract: A contemporary house located in California has a unique HVAC system featuring radiant floor heating and cooling, forced-air hydronic
heating and cooling, and a system that ventilates the house at night to reduce air conditioner energy use by pre-cooling building mass. The purpose
of this study was to compare the energy consumption and electrical power demand characteristics of the various heating and cooling operating modes.
Cooling season testing involved three different operating modes during similar weather conditions and comparable indoor comfort conditions. Heating testing
involved operation in two test modes: hydronic radiant floor heating and hydronic forced-air heating, both by heating water with natural gas. Energy performance
results reveal that slab pre-cooling caused some of the energy demand to shift from primarily in the afternoon. Coupling slab pre-cooling with nighttime
ventilation air significantly shifted the energy demand load from primarily in the afternoon to late night iwht the load coming mainly from the fan.
Also, during comparable outside conditions, there were appreciable energy differences among cooling modes and no identifiable energy advantage was noticed
during the heating mode.
Keywords: hydronic heating, hydronic cooling, radiant heating, radiant cooling, demand saving, forced air heating, forced air cooling
Availability:
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers
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Reference:
ASHRAE Transactions 2005
Volume 111, Part 1
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