A radiant and convective time series method for cooling load calculation of radiant ceiling panel system

Traditional cooling load calculation theory and methods are based on the assumption that the room heat gains were only removed through convection by all-air systems. Studies have shown that they were not suitable for radiant systems that remove room heat gains through both radiation and convection. This study defined radiant and convective time series (RTS and CTS) factors to quantify the cooling load conversion process for radiant ceiling panel (RCP) system. The RTS and CTS factors were verified to follow the linear superposition principle, and on this basis, a radiant and convective time series (RCTS) method was proposed. To evaluate its accuracy, a parametric simulation of 34992 cases for rooms with only RCP was firstly performed, we found the relative errors of the peak cooling load for all the cases are within 10% compared to heat balance method, and more than 90% of the cases have no peak load occurring time difference. In addition, the RCTS method was also found to have good accuracy for integrated operation of RCP and dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS). Finally, a new cooling load calculation procedure based on RCTS method was proposed.

Automated summary

Traditional cooling load calculation theories and methods based on convection heat transfer were found to be insufficient for systems that use both radiation and convection to remove room heat gains. A new radiant and convective time series method was proposed, which showed good accuracy in simulations and verification, suitable for calculating cooling loads of various systems.