Influence of Natural Ventilation and Indoor Heat Load on Radiant Ceiling Cooling System

The thermally activated building system is integrated into the roof made of an eco-friendly building material called glass fibre reinforced gypsum. This proposed chilled ceiling system is termed as the Thermally Activated Glass Fibre Reinforced Gypsum (TAGFRG) roof. The influence of indoor heat load and natural ventilation on the thermal performance of the proposed cooling system was investigated using experimental techniques. The experiment room of 3.5 m x 3.5 m x 3.5 m is constructed with the TAGFRG roof in warm and humid climate. A continuous monitoring facility has been developed to monitor the thermal comfort parameters. To analyse the influence of indoor heat load, it was varied between 400 W and 700 W in intervals of 100 W. Natural ventilation is not considered in the indoor heat load study.

The influence of natural ventilation on the thermal comfort of the cooling system was investigated. Three different cases have been analysed, namely No Ventilation but With Cooling (NV_WC), With Ventilation and With Cooling (WV_WC), and With Ventilation but No Cooling (WV_NC). The indoor heat load considered for the natural ventilation study is 400 W. The cooling water is supplied at 20°C and 600 lph, for both indoor heat load and natural ventilation studies.