A study on the applicability of the time-division hot water supply heating for ondol: the radiant floor heating system in korea

The typical Korean residential buildings, especially apartment buildings, are furnished with ONDOL – the Korean traditional radiant floor heating system. The buildings are getting more insulated and air tight for heating in hard winter. ONDOL floors and walls are heavy enough to take up large thermal capacities for the better efficiency of the heating system. The developed computer simulation program could well predict that the heat- equivalent to 5 continuous hours of hot water supply - is intermittently supplied even on the coldest day in Seoul, Korea. Since heat supply to the buildings with large thermal capacity is intermittent, one space can be heated, while the other cools down slowly with previously stored heat. This concept of heating is proposed as 'The Time- Division Hot-Water Supply Heating System'. To verify the applicability of the proposed heating system, computer simulation was performed on two identical Ondol rooms. The results showed that the required heating time of each rooms was the both 5 hours, and could maintain room air temperatures even better.