Impact Noise Reduction of Underfloor Heating Systems

Underfloor heating systems are becoming very popular in building technology, principally due to advantages related to energy saving and thermal comfort. Even if the materials used for the radiant heating panels are well optimized to achieve necessary thermal insulation, rarely these materials have been designed also for a good impact noise reduction of the floor they are applied to. An experimental analysis was carried out in laboratory according to ISO 10140-1, in order to study the acoustic behaviour of floors with integrated radiant heating systems with a built-in resilient layer for impact noise insulation. These heating systems have been set up both on a beam and clay block floor and concrete slab for the evaluation of impact noise according to ISO 10140-3 and the influence of the top finishing has also been investigated. Comparison among noise level reduction data of different floors and radiant heating systems are presented and problems related to dynamic stiffness optimization and performance fitting are pointed out.