Floor heating costs more to run than radiators in cold climates
A new study comparing heating systems in Swedish homes finds that radiator-based systems require less total energy than floor heating—a finding that challenges assumptions in the building industry. For homeowners and builders in northern regions, the result suggests conventional radiators may offer better economics despite floor heating's comfort appeal.
Originaltitel: Heat Supply Comparison in a Single-Family House with Radiator and Floor Heating Systems
<p>Floor heating and radiators are two of the most common types of hydronic heating systemsused for space heating in single-family houses in cold climate regions. Notwithstanding, there are fewcomparative studies on indoor temperature distribution and system cost evaluations for radiatorsand floor heating. Furthermore, there are no aligned outcomes in terms of total heat supply fora single-family house with radiators or floor heating. In this study, the eect of building energyeciency level and construction type, including flooring material, on the supply heating demand andtransmission heat losses were studied for both radiator and floor heating systems. For this purpose,a single-family house located in Växjö, Sweden, was modeled as a case study. The heating demandwas supplied with a district heating system with a similar supply temperature at 45 C for both theradiator and floor heating system. A sensitivity analysis was also performed to assess the eect offlooring configurations on the annual supply heating demand for both conventional and passiveversions of the case-study building. The results showed that the radiator-integrated building had alower supply heating demand in comparison with the floor heating-integrated buildings. Based onthe sensitivity studies, the flooring material did not have a significant influence on the supply heatingdemand and on the transmission heat losses in the case of the radiators. The supply heating demandwas only reduced up to 3% if the flooring U-value was improved by 60%. The results also showedthat refurbishment in a standard conventional building with a radiator heating system based on thepassive criteria led to a 58% annual energy savings, while this amount for a building with a floorheating system was approximately 49%.</p>