Energy analysis of industrial climatization by an innovative radiant condensing system

Radiant heating plants have become increasingly popular in the last decades, particularly for industrial applications. Generally, they are high temperature radiant heating type, even if more recently low temperature radiant floors have increased their spread due to the increased thermal insulation of buildings. Moreover, radiant floors allow for cooling as well. In this paper, energy performance of a high temperature radiant tubes heating plant coupled to a condensing system for the climatization of an industrial building are investigated by dynamic simulation. A Trnsys type is modified in order to simulate the behavior of the high temperature condensing system: both the radiative (between the heating and the surrounding surfaces) and the convective heat exchanges with suitable devices (like baffles applied in order to reduce convection and consequent thermal stratification) are considered. Energy performance is compared to that of two more traditional plants such as warm air heater, and low temperature radiant floor coupled to condensing boiler. Finally, some considerations about the energy performance of the radiant tubes system in cooling mode are reported.