Room air conditioning by means of overnight cooling of the concrete ceiling
- Meierhans and Partner AG, Zurich (Switzerland)
Active control of the storage mass of an office building in Horgen, Switzerland, by means of a water-carrying pipe system installed in the core of the concrete ceilings has already proven successful over a period of three summers. Comfort measurements in practice and under load-simulated operating conditions have confirmed the suitability of the system for small and medium loads. During the day, only the supply air volume of the mechanical ventilation system is cooled to a temperature of 19 C (66.2 F); the heat stored in the concrete mass is discharged overnight. However, the proportion of cooling water generated in the free-cooling mode remained below expectations. This is attributable to the clearly lower inner thermal loads and the facade insulation, which is no longer up-to-date. Since the building already dispenses a part of its heat via the facade on cooler summer nights, the utilization efficiency of the free concrete core-cooling system diminishes somewhat in importance. The experience gained, however, is recommendation enough for the employment of the embedded pipework system, not only for the cooling but also for the heating of well-insulated buildings with small and medium cooling loads.
- OSTI ID:
- 392498
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960254--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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