The building industry nowadays is facing two major challenges increased concern for energy reduction and growing need for thermal comfort. These challenges have led many researchers to develop Radiant Cooling Systems that show a large potential for energy savings. This study aims to develop a personalized cooling system using the principle of radiant cooling integrated with conventional all-air system to achieve better thermal environment at the workspace. Personalized conditioning aims to create a microclimatic zone around a single workspace. In this way, the energy is deployed only where it is actually needed, and the individual s needs for thermal comfort are fulfilled. To study the effect of air temperature along with air temperature distribution for workspace, air temperature near the vicinity of the occupant has been obtained as a result of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation using FLUENT. The analysis showed that personalized radiant system improves thermal environment near the workspace and allows all-air systems to work at higher thermostat temperature without compromising the thermal comfort, which in turn reduces its energy consumption.

Much attention is being given to improving the efficiency of air-conditioning systems through the promotion of more efficient cooling technologies. One such alternative, radiant cooling, is the subject of this thesis. Performance information from Western European buildings equipped with radiant cooling systems indicates that these systems not only reduce the building energy consumption but also provide additional economic and comfort-related benefits. Their potential in other markets such as the US has been largely overlooked due to lack of practical demonstration, and to the absence of simulation tools capable of predicting system performance in different climates. This thesis describes the development of RADCOOL, a simulation tool that models thermal and moisture-related effects in spaces equipped with radiant cooling systems. The thesis then conducts the first in-depth investigation of the climate-related aspects of the performance of radiant cooling systems in office buildings. The results of the investigation show that a building equipped with a radiant cooling system can be operated in any US climate with small risk of condensation. For the office space examined in the thesis, employing a radiant cooling system instead of a traditional all-air system can save on average 30% of the energy consumption and 27% of the peak power demand due to space conditioning. The savings potential is climate-dependent, and is larger in retrofitted buildings than in new construction. This thesis demonstrates the high performance potential of radiant cooling systems across a broad range of US climates. It further discusses the economics governing the US air-conditioning market and identifies the type of policy interventions and other measures that could encourage the adoption of radiant cooling in this market.

Improving energy efficiency in the Heating Ventilation and Air conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings is critical to achieve the energy reduction in the building sector, which consumes 41% of all primary energy produced in the United States, and was responsible for nearly half of U.S. CO2 emissions. Based on a report by the New Building Institute (NBI), when HVAC systems are used, about half of the zero net energy (ZNE) buildings report using a radiant cooling/heating system, often in conjunction with ground source heat pumps. Radiant systems differ from air systems in the main heat transfer mechanism used to remove heat from a space, and in their control characteristics when responding to changes in control signals and room thermal conditions. This dissertation investigates three related design and control topics: cooling load calculations, cooling capacity estimation, and control for the heavyweight radiant systems. These three issues are fundamental to the development of accurate design/modeling tools, relevant performance testing methods, and ultimately the realization of the potential energy benefits of radiant systems. Cooling load calculations are a crucial step in designing any HVAC system. In the current standards, cooling load is defined and calculated independent of HVAC system type. In this dissertation, I present research evidence that sensible zone cooling loads for radiant systems are different from cooling loads for traditional air systems. Energy simulations, in EnergyPlus, and laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the heat transfer dynamics in spaces conditioned by radiant and air systems. The results show that the magnitude of the cooling load difference between the two systems ranges from 7-85%, and radiant systems remove heat faster than air systems. For the experimental tested conditions, 75-82% of total heat gain was removed by radiant system during the period when the heater (simulating the heat gain) was on, while for air system, 61-63% were removed. From a heat transfer perspective, the differences are mainly because the chilled surfaces directly remove part of the radiant heat gains from a zone, thereby bypassing the time-delay effect caused by the interaction of radiant heat gain with non-active thermal mass in air systems. The major conclusions based on these findings are: 1) there are important limitations in the definition of cooling load for a mixing air system described in Chapter 18 of ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals when applied to radiant systems; 2) due to the obvious mismatch between how radiant heat transfer is handled in traditional cooling load calculation methods compared to its central role in radiant cooling systems, this dissertation provides improvements for the current cooling load calculation method based on the Heat Balance procedure. The Radiant Time Series method is not appropriate for radiant system applications. The findings also directly apply to the selection of space heat transfer modeling algorithms that are part of all energy modeling software. Cooling capacity estimation is another critical step in a design project. The above mentioned findings and a review of the existing methods indicates that current radiant system cooling capacity estimation methods fail to take into account incident shortwave radiation generated by solar and lighting in the calculation process. This causes a significant underestimation (up to 150% for some instances) of floor cooling capacity when solar load is dominant. Building performance simulations were conducted to verify this hypothesis and quantify the impacts of solar for different design scenarios. A new simplified method was proposed to improve the predictability of the method described in ISO 11855 when solar radiation is present. The dissertation also compares the energy and comfort benefits of the model-based predictive control (MPC) method with a fine-tuned heuristic control method when applied to a heavyweight embedded surface system. A first order dynamic model of a radiant slab system was developed for implementation in model predictive controllers. A calibrated EnergyPlus model of a typical office building in California was used as a testbed for the comparison. The results indicated that MPC is able to reduce the cooling tower energy consumption by 55% and pumping power consumption by 26%, while maintaining equivalent or even better thermal comfort conditions. In summary, the dissertation work has: (1) provided clear evidence that the fundamental heat transfer mechanisms differ between radiant and air systems. These findings have important implications for the development of accurate and reliable design and energy simulation tools; (2) developed practical design methods and guidance to aid practicing engineers who are designing radiant systems; and (3) outlined future research and design tools need to advance the state-of-knowledge and design and operating guidelines for radiant systems.

A significant amount of the electrical energy used to cool non-residential buildings equipped with all-air systems is drawn by the fans that transport the cool air through the thermal distribution system. Hydronic radiant cooling systems have the potential to reduce the amount of air transported through the building by separating the tasks of ventilation and thermal conditioning. Because of the physical properties of water, hydronic radiant cooling systems can transport a given amount of thermal energy using less than 5170 of the otherwise necessary fan energy. This improvement alone significantly reduces the energy consumption and peak power requirement of the air conditioning system. Hydronic radiant cooling systems have been used for more than 30 years in hospital rooms to provide a draft-free, thermally stable environment. The energy savings and peak-load characteristics of these systems have not yet been analyzed systematically. Moreover, adequate guidelines for design and control of these systems do not exist. This has prevented their widespread application to other building types. The evaluation of the theoretical performance of hydronic systems could be made most conveniently by computer models. Energy analysis programs such as DOE-2 do not have the capability to simulate hydronic radiant systems yet. In this paper the development of a model that can simulate accurately the dynamic performance of hydronic radiant cooling systems is described. The model is able to calculate loads, heat extraction rates, room air temperature and room surface temperature distributions, and can be used to evaluate issues such as thermal comfort, controls, system sizing, system configuration and dynamic response. The model was created with the Simulation Problem Analysis and Research Kernel (SPARK) developed at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, which provides a methodology for describing and solving the dynamic, non-linear equations that correspond to complex physical systems.

The Employment Development Department office building on Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles was constructed in 1996, where a new type of cooling system was implemented. This system chills water in a radiative and evaporative way by spaying it over a flat or low-slope roof surface at night. The chilled water is subsequently filtered, stored, and delivered by next day cooling, thereby enabling downsizing of conventional cooling systems. Net cooling-energy savings are over 50% for this building.

Considerable electrical energy used to cool nonresidential buildings equipped with All-Air Systems is drawn by the fans that transport the cool air through the thermal distribution system. Hydropic Cooling Systems have the potential to reduce the amount of air transported through the building by separating the tasks of ventilation and thermal conditioning. Due to the physical properties of water, Hydropic Cooling Systems can transport a given amount of thermal energy using less than 5% of the otherwise necessary fan energy. They are suited to the dry climates that are typical of California and been used for more than 30 years in hospital rooms. However, energy savings and peak-load characteristics have not yet been analyzed. Adequate guidelines for their design and control systems has prevented lack of their widespread application to other building types. Evaluation of theoretical performance of Hydropic Systems could be made by computer models. Energy analysis programs such as DOE-2 do not yet have the capacity to simulate Hydropic Cooling Systems. Scope of this project is developing a model that can accurately simulate the dynamic performance of Hydropic Radiant Cooling Systems. The model can calculate loads, heat extraction rates, room air temperature and room surface temperature distributions, and can be used to evaluate issues such as thermal comfort, controls, system sizing, system configuration and dynamic response. The model was created with the LBL Simulation Problem Analysis and Research Kernel (SPARK), which provides a methodology for describing and solving the dynamic, non-linear equations that correspond to complex physical systems. Potential for Hydropic Radiant Cooling Systems applications can be determined by running this model for a variety of construction types in different California climates.