Energy efficiency and thermal environment of floor heating system using heat pump

This paper describes thermal characteristics of a hydronic floor heating system using heat pumps. An experimental system is constructed in a climate chamber. It has a test room with a floor area of 1 1.6 m2 and an air volume of 23.15 m3. Higher heat flow from floor heating can be seen in the room space at cases using panels with a thinner top layer made by materials with lower thermal resistance. Such panels also provide higher room temperature than other ones in comparison with conditions at similar supply water temperature. The heat balance in the whole system is observed. The ratio of heat available for space heating is almost half of the input heat. Reduction of the heat loss is necessary to improve the system thermal efficiency.