A STUDY ON THE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS OF A PREFABRICATED FLOOR HEATING PANEL REGARDING FOR REMODELING OF AN AGED APARTMENT

In Korea, there is growing interest in the remodeling of aged apartment buildings. Traditionally, theheating panel in Korea is a wet type floor heating panel that utilizes radiation. But if a wet type floorheating panel is installed in an aged apartment during its remodeling, some problems may occur. Theyinclude failure to secure enough ceiling height, to reduce level of floor impact noise and possibility thatthe load on the existing structure is increased. In other words, a wet type floor heating panel may not bein compliance with the Korea building codes when it is used in remodeling of such apartment structures.Therefore, a prefabricated floor heating system which is thin and lightweight is suggested as analternative to a wet type floor heating panel. In this research, first, the building codes that restrict,directly and indirectly, the prefabricated floor heating panel for an apartment remodeling wereinvestigated. Second, the available thickness of panel was calculated so that it complies with thebuilding code, and it was found that there is a need to develop a new prefabricated floor heating panelthat can be installed in an aged apartment to be remodeled. Third, the design parameters of a floorheating panel were classified and determined according to their role to design reasonably within theavailable thickness by studying the standards and technical documents.