Utilization potential of low temperature hydronic space heating systems: A comparative review

Recently, there has been a rising concern for hydronic space heating systems of various configurations for low temperature water heating applications due to constantly tightening energy codes and regulations. Current tendencies in Russian legislation system aim to transfer local building sector for low-exergy systems. The current work aims at reviewing the recent researches conducted on the low-temperature hydronic space heating systems and heat emitters with a view of evaluating their practical application in Russian building sector. The review is based on the comparison of various key performance data for systematic representation of studied concepts. It was stated that having a wide range of different approaches and performance criteria increases the difficulty of examining a specific system and comparing it with the others. Studies and practicies, analyzed in similar to Russia weather conditions, indicate distinct prospects of utilization of low-temperature hydronic heating systems. An optimum hydronic space-heating configuration can be identified for the specific case but it is strongly dependent on initial boundary conditions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd.