Low - Temperature Basedboard Heaters in Built Environments

Abstract: The European Union has adopted a plan to decrease 20 % of total energy consumption through improved energy efficiency by 2020. One way of achieving this challenging goal may be to use efficient water-based heating systems supplied by heat pumps or othersustainable systems. The goal of this research was to analyze and improve the thermalperformance of water-based baseboard heaters at low-temperature water supply. Both numerical (CFD) and analytical simulations were used to investigate the heat efficiency of the system. An additional objective of this work was to ensure that the indoor thermal comfort was satisfied in spaces served by such a low-temperature heating system. Analyses showed that it was fully possible to cover both transmission and ventilation heatl osses using baseboard heaters supplied by 45 °C water flow. The conventional baseboards, however, showed problems in suppressing the cold air down-flow created by 2.0 m high glazing and an outdoor temperature of – 12 °C. The draught discomfort at ankle level was slightly above the upper limit recommended by international and national standards. On the other hand, thermal baseboards with integrated ventilation air supply showed better ability to neutralize cold downdraught at the same height and conditions. Calculations also showed that the heat output from the integrated system with one ventilation inlet was approximately twiceas high as that of the conventional one. The general conclusion from this work was that low-temperature baseboards, especially with integrated ventilation air supply, are an efficient heating system and able to be combined with devices that utilize the low-quality sustainable energy sources such as heat pumps.