articles
Building Integrated System Design
for Sustainable Heating and Cooling
WaterTraditional water based systems
Lars Sønderby Nielsen operating at optimal temperature levels
REHVA Fellow represent a low tech but easy and accessible
Uponor Corporation potential for energy optimisation and
[email protected] integration of renewable energy in the
construction sector.
building codes with stricter requirements for the tightness
Good Indoor Environment of building envelopes. A promising strategy for sustain-
with Low Energy Use Required able cooling is water based solutions utilising large radiant
surfaces at relatively high temperatures, coupled with free
The requirements to modern buildings are numerous. cooling sources. By using large surfaces, both heating and
Energy consumption must be minimised and the nec- cooling can be obtained at temperatures close to ambient,
essary building services must be provided in the most which offer optimal operating conditions for integration
sustainable way in order to ensure adequate indoor cli- of renewable energy and free cooling. In buildings where
mate and healthy conditions for the users. Improved occupancy pattern yields large cooling loads during day
energy efficiency is among the fastest and most cost ef- time, embedded water based systems can in addition yield
ficient ways of lowering energy consumption but is of- substantial peak load reduction and consequent plant size
ten not offered the same attention as new and more ex- reduction (Thermo active construction/building).
otic technologies.
Sustainable Heating and Cooling
Several tendencies indicate that the cooling needs in The building sector account for approximately 40%
buildings are increasing due to changed indoor com- of the total energy consumption and the majority of
fort requirements, more extreme weather types and new this energy is used to maintain adequate indoor climate
Thermo active constructions works by activating the building’s thermal mass with embedded piping. This gives an op-
timal indoor climate while energy consumption for heating and cooling is minimized. The TAB system is a combined
heating and cooling system with pipes embedded in the structural concrete slabs or walls of multi storey buildings,
typically applied for buildings where occupancy pattern yields large cooling loads during day time. As the system is
often operated asynchronously to the thermal loads of the building, parts of the loads can be shifted from day time
to night time, resulting in substantial peak load plant size reduction.
24 REHVA Journal – February 2012
articles
Low exergy systems
conditions by heating, cooling and ventilation. It is es-
timated that about a third of this energy consumption Both heating and cooling can in principle be obtained
can be eliminated by using known technologies with a at temperature levels that are close to the ambient en-
very short pay back time. There exist thus a big savings vironment. A low delta T only requires that the heat
potential that can be achieved by an integrated optimi- transmission takes place over relative big surfaces as for
sation of the buildings architecture, thermal envelope example applied in under floor heating systems. The
and the technical HVAC systems. favourable temperature levels make it possible to uti-
lise energy that in principle has a low quality, or more
A sustainable strategy for both heating and cooling is wa- correctly a low exergy content. The exergy concept can
ter based solutions utilising large radiant surfaces applying be seen as a measure for the quality and availability of a
high temperature cooling and low temperature heating. given energy stream. I the recent years a number of in-
Low energy consumption is this achieved by maintain- ternational research and demonstration projects have
ing a mean operating water temperature (18–28°C) that been accomplish focusing on exergy optimisation of en-
is close to the ambient temperature. This increases the ef- ergy systems, including the LowEx programme under
ficiency of heat sources such as heat pumps and enables the international energy agency IEA. The conclusions
the use of renewable energy and sources of free cooling. underline that the future interaction between collec-
Radiant systems are embedded in the building’s structure, tive supply systems and the individual building will be
which leaves visually clean surfaces, with no obtrusive and a key element for improving the total energy efficiency
disturbing appliances, and flexible indoor architecture. on district level.
Optimal utilisation of
System 1 System 2 System 3 energy sources
T (°C) Efficiency T (°C) Efficiency T (°C) Efficiency Water based systems such as un-
Condensing boiler 80 0.95 80 0.95 80 0.95 der floor heating and under floor
Air-cooled chiller 7-12 3.1 7 3.1 7 3.1 cooling are born as low exergy sys-
Condensing boiler 55 1.0 tems since they facilitate heating
Air-cooled chiller 18 3.5 and cooling at temperatures close
Heat pump 55 4.05 55 4.05 to the ambient environment.
Reversible heat pump 18 6.50 Consequently the systems can uti-
Free cooling (ground water) 18 lise all sort of energy supply very
efficiently, in particular renewable
200 energy sources such as solar, bi-
kWh/m2/year
AllAirSystem omass, ground heating and heat
180
RadiantSystem1 pumps. The over all efficiency of
160
most energy sources strongly de-
RadiantSystem2
140 pends on the supply temperature
120 RadiantSystem3 in the heating system, the lower
the supply temperature, the high-
100
er efficiency. This is in particular
80 the case for heat pumps and for
60 condensing boilers (natural gas
and biomass). For heat pumps
40
a rule of thumb says that lower-
20 ing the supply temperature in the
0 heating system by 1°C will yield
Rome Frankfurt London Madrid a reduction of the annual energy
consumption by approximately
Example of simulated radiant system performance based on a comparison be- 2%. If the heating system is de-
tween a system based on a radiant floor and ceiling for heating and cooling and signed with under floor heating
an all air reference system. (Annual primary energy use per square meter of the operating at a supply temperature
conditioned area). The simulations are done with EnergyPlus v.3.1.0. and climatic on 30°C instead of radiators with
conditions adapted from the IWEC (International Weather for Energy Calculation a supply temperature on 50°C
database of climatic data. this will yield and annual saving
REHVA Journal – February 2012 25
articles
on the energy bill of about 30–40%, dependant of course
on the heat pump type and other parameters.
Radiant systems
Heating and cooling systems with water conducted in
pipes integrated in the floors, ceilings or walls of a build-
ing are named radiant systems, as more than 50% of the
energy exchange is by radiation. Typically applied radiant
systems for office environments spans from traditional
under floor heating and cooling systems over various wall
and ceiling integrated systems to thermally active build-
ing systems where pipes are embedded into the concrete
slabs. Heat output of up to 100 W/m² can typically be
achieved with floor and ceiling systems whereas cooling
output of typically 60 W/m² is achievable with thermally BOB (Balanced Office Building), Aachen, Germany. A
active building systems and up to 75 W/m² cooling can highly energy efficient office building controlled by ad-
be achieved with comfort panels for suspended ceilings. vanced building technology. Heating cooling is provid-
ed by a TAB system fed by borehole heat exchangers in
Low temperature heating and high-temperature cooling combination with a heat pump.
is the key to energy efficiency in high-performance build-
ings. With a low-temperature radiant heating system, en-
ergy source efficiency will significantly increase in compar-
ison to traditional, high-temperature systems and air heat-
ing. This results and reduced primary energy consump-
tion. The feasibility and performance of thermally active
building systems has been investigated with results show-
ing energy savings of 25–60 % and thermal comfort yield-
ing a decrease of extended air circulation of 25–75 %.
Integration of renewable energy sources
Using large surfaces as emitters allows heating and cool-
ing at temperatures very close to that of the ambient en-
vironment. This means that renewable energy available
from the ground, water, sun and air can be integrated
and utilised with ease. Ground-source heating can be
incorporated into the system via ground heat pumps.
Combining a radiant cooling system with a free cooling
source can reduce energy consumption by 80–90%, since
traditional chillers can be eliminated and only electricity
for circulation pumps is needed. Natural-ground water
has ideal temperature levels for radiant cooling systems.
Alternatively, the systems can be operated with sea-water
cooling or solar cooling that uses absorption chillers. BO CAFOD Headquarters, London, England. Occupying
a difficult triangular site, the building is an exemplar of
Need for sustainable cooling sustainable workplace design with cooling provided by
Several tendencies indicate that the cooling needs in the a Thermally Active Building System in the exposed ther-
entire building mass will increase in the future. This is mal mass in situ concrete structure.
partly because we experience more extreme weather types
with warmer summers and partly because people’s require- and industrial buildings, where cooling is already widely
ments for indoor comfort are increasing continuously. used, but also increasingly in private housing.
New improved building codes with stricter requirements
for the tightness of building envelopes also introduces sig- Using a combined under floor heating and cooling sys-
nificant cooling demands in summer. This applies in office tem, the cooling need can be met by using floor cool-
26 REHVA Journal – February 2012
articles
ing with a flow temperature relatively close to room
temperature, typically at 15–17°C. With this favour-
able temperature level the cooling needs can be covered
with minimal energy consumption, for example via free
cooling with a ground-coupled heat pump.
Energy efficient cooling is also required for office and in-
dustrial buildings. In these building types it is in similar
way favourable to utilise high temperature cooling solu-
tions that can exploit free cooling sources and thus reduce
energy consumption to an absolute minimum. Water-
based cooling solutions in the form of chilled beams and
cooling panels are well known in most European mar-
kets. Thermo-active constructions, primarily known
from Central Europe, are gradually increasing their mar-
ket share due to their favourable comfort characteristics
and energy performance. The principle of a thermo active
construction is that pipes integrated into the concrete and This airport in Bangkok provides cooling and thermal
floors, whereby the building mass is activated. This is op- comfort by combination of two separate systems: a
timal for the thermal indoor climate, and in addition peak displacement ventilation system with variable flow volume
loads can be reduced substantially, as a part of the cooling and an underfloor cooling system supplied by Uponor.
needs are shifted to the non-occupied night hours when
the building’s thermal mass is cooled down.
A significant portion of these system losses can be min-
In office buildings, the need for cooling is often much imized by proper design and layout of system param-
greater than that for heating. A major advantage of ra- eters such as emitter location in the construction, pipe
diant cooling us the possibility to integrate free cooling spacing and dimensions. There are also significant sav-
sources for example in the form of ground water, sea or ings to be gained through developing and implement-
lake water. Combined with a radiant cooling system this ing dedicated control algorithms. For example, Uponor
can reduce the energy consumption for cooling as tra- has developed a self-learning control algorithm for floor
ditional chillers can be eliminated, and only electricity heating systems based on pulsed heat input, which vir-
for circulation pumps is needed. Also with conventional tually eliminates control loss with a documented annual
cooling technology such as traditional roof top chillers, a energy savings of up to 8%.
radiant system will potentially yield energy savings.
Conclusion and perspectives
In particular when using thermally active building sys- A radiant heating and cooling system makes commercial
tem, it is possible to run the system during periods when buildings more energy-efficient, also when it is paired
the building is unoccupied. The system utilises the con- with a traditional HVAC system. The radiant system
crete’s thermal mass storage and discharge of thermal works with water temperatures close to the ambient
loads. This conserves energy by reducing the load on temperature, which allows low-exergy design, resulting
traditional HVAC systems and allows using off-peak in reduced primary energy consumption. In order to
energy rates for lower operation costs. utilise our energy resources in an optimal way, it is sug-
gested that integrated low temperature water-based sys-
Minimizing losses tems are a key element in the future construction design
In addition to a building’s net heat requirements there practice and energy system design. Thermal comfort
will typically be a loss of up to 20% from the total with minimum energy consumption can be achieved us-
heating system. This additional loss can be assigned to ing radiant heating and cooling systems in combination
boilers, pumps, control, distribution, emissions, etc. with appropriate conditioning of the indoor air. Heating
Emission losses depends on the choice and position- can be provided at optimal efficiency using large emit-
ing of heat emitters (under floor heating, radiators etc.) ters with temperatures close to ambient and the cooling
and the system’s ability to maintain an optimum tem- loads can be efficiently removed at favourable tempera-
perature profile and compensate for changes in heat de- ture levels by using free cooling sources with a ground
mand over time. coupled heat pump.
REHVA Journal – February 2012 27
