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Energy efficiency and indoor thermal perception:
a comparative study between radiant panel and portable
convective heaters

Research Abstract
This study investigates experimentally the thermal perception of indoor environment for evaluating the ability of radiant panel heaters to produce thermal comfort for space occupants as well as the energy consumption in comparison with conventional portable natural convective heaters. The thermal perception results show that, compared with conventional convection heater, a radiantly heated office room maintains a lower ambient air temperature while providing equal levels of thermal perception on the thermal dummy head as the convective heater and saves up to 39.1% of the energy consumption per day. However, for human subjects’ vote experiments, the results show that for an environmentally controlled test room at outdoor environment temperatures of 0°C and 5°C, using two radiant panel heaters with a total capacity of 580 W leads to a better comfort sensation than the conventional portable natural convective heater with a 670Wcapacity, with an energy saving of about 13.4%. In addition, for an outdoor environment temperature of 10°C, using one radiant panel heater with a capacity of 290 W leads to a better comfort sensation than the conventional convection heater with a 670Wcapacity, with an energy saving of about 56.7%. From the analytical results, it is found that distributing the radiant panel heater inside the office
Research Authors
Ahmed Hamza H. Ali & Mahmoud Gaber Morsy
Research Journal
Energy Efficiency
Research Member
Research Pages
1112-1121
Research Rank
1
Research Vol
vol 87 - no 4
Research Year
2010