Radiant Cooling - Part I, Fundamentals

Introduction
The two most common myths around radiant cooling is that it will cause
condensation and you will have cold floors - that's it...go to any online chat
site and ask about radiant cooling and watch what happens.
The reason why these myths get spread has to do with misunderstanding
four principles:
• the true definition of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)
• the difference between latent and sensible loads and,
• the concept of maintaining a "lean" mixture (grains of moisture per
pound of dry air)
• how comfort cooling works.
First we need to remind ourselves that HVAC is not exclusively about
conditioning the building, rather its primarily about conditioning you and I
which includes both conditioning the air and our bodies . What does this
mean? It means you have to learn to separate comfort quality from air
quality which is hard thing to do if you've spent your whole life thinking they
are the same or believing you can effectively do both with one HVAC
system. Look at it this way...have you ever considered the body has
independent system to deal with thermal comfort (skin to brain) and
respiration (lungs to brain)...and have you ever considered there are two
separate standards one for thermal comfort (ASHRAE 55) and one for air
quality (ASHRAE 62)? The problem with most builders and HVAC people is
they try to do two separate tasks with one system which is contrary to what
the body does and contrary to what is reflected by standards.
So when do we feel cooling comfort? Well when our body loses more heat
than it can generate we experience a cool sensation. If the heat loss from
our body is such that it goes from cooling comfort to cold it causes a
reduction in skin temperature and goosebumps...if the body can't shed its
heat fast enough it goes from heating comfort to hot which leads to a rise in
skin temperature and perspiration. If the body continues to loose excessive
heat we can go into hypothermia...if we can't get rid of excessive heat we
go into hyperthermia - both scenarios can lead to death - which is really
hard to recover from...
To cool our body just enough to be comfortable we can lower the mass
temperature in our home a few degrees cooler than our skin temperature
which creates the same experience you get when you walk into an
underground garage on a hot summer day or into the frozen food section at
the super market. Why do we feel cool in the underground garage or
freezer section? It's because the temperature of the concrete or glass in
relation to our skin is lower so our body releases its heat via radiation to the
cooler surface - thus the reason we feel cool. The best part of it all, is a
body at rest, transfers over 50% of its heat via radiation so radiant cooling
makes perfect sense. In fact the transfer of our body heat to the cooler
surface via radiation is called "sensible" heat transfer. So now you know that
radiant (sensible) cooling works because you have experienced it a
thousand times before just like the cave dwellers of years past…you just
never thought about it.
Where most uneducated voices speak up and against radiant cooling has to
do with condensation. You see they don't know about sensible vs. latent
cooling. Sensible can be thought of as dry heat or heat without moisture.
The solar heat inside a greenhouse is a great
example of sensible heat. In a building, sensible
cooling is the absorption of the radiant energy from
the sun and other radiant heat sources such as your
body, lights, motors, compressors, stoves, ovens,
dryers, computers and home theatre systems. All of these loads which
raise the mass temperature and mean radiant temperature of the home can
be removed by absorbing the excess heat with a cool surface.
Think of a cooled surface as 'sponge' for sensible heat
What shouldn't be absorbed by a cool surface is the heat being held in the
moisture content of the air. This heat is called the
"latent" load. Latent means dormant, hidden or
concealed. Latent heat shows up every time you sit
outside on a hot humid day with a cool drink in your
hand...water actually forms on the glass surface.
Where did the water come from? It was actually
hidden in the air and the amount is based on an
every day term that you are familiar with called relative humidity. The
visible presence of moisture or condensation occurred because the ‘humid’
air (latent heat) met a chilled surface (sensible). Can you guess where some
of the heat in the moisture went to? That's right...it went into the glass via
conduction. It's one of the reasons why you need to keep putting ice into
the glass to keep the drink cool. The rest of the heat went back into vapor or
dripped all over your shirt or shorts.
So what does this mean? It means a radiant cooling surface is used to
absorb heat it can thermally feel in the absence of moisture.
This is very important to understand because in some climate regions of
North America the relative humidity in the summer is very low almost desert
like. In other parts of the country the humidity is very high. In other parts it
changes based on how much rain falls in the region and for how long. In all
cases the latent load must be controlled either for comfort and/or to prevent
moisture damage in buildings
So the key to cooling with radiant is to control the surface dew point and
relative humidity and that is easy to do.
go to part II - click here., Controlling the Relative Humidity
go to part III - click here, Heating and Cooling Comfort Systems
go to part IV - click here, Radiant Cooling Educational Movie Clips
go to part V - click here, Featured Project, Manitoba Hydro Office Building
People who visited these radiant cooling pages have also visited our Radiant
Design Guide, Psychrometrics - Made Easy and Introduction to Indoor
Environmental Quality.
"...man does not feel the room temperature, he feels the heat loss
from the body." Credit Innova

Increasing the heat loss from the body can be done with cooled surfaces;
similar to the sensation you get when standing next to a window on a cold
winter day...except the cooled surface is controlled for comfort.
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Featured Projects:
Radiant cooling in the California Academy of Science

click image to view the radiant cooling video - credit Uponor

Radiant Cooling in the Bangkok Airport

Photo credits various sources including TransSolar, Dr. Olesen, Project
Team, Uponor et al.
There are radiant cooled projects all over the world including many projects
in America.
One the largest radiant cooling projects in the world is the Bangkok airport
having over 1,500,000 sq. ft. of cooled floors to absorb sensible heat from
solar gains and travelers.

Designers use programs like this to easily calculate the dew point of
surfaces

Online radiant design presentation for professionals.

Infloor Radiant Design Guide: Heat Loss to Head Loss
Typical Radiant Based HVAC Schematics

HVAC
HVAC is the acronym for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning.
Most people including many industry professionals wrongly assume that
HVAC exclusively means thermal comfort and air quality, but this limited
interpretation prevents many to appreciate the more accurate meaning, let
us explain;
• Heating (H) influences the relative humidity, surface and interstitial
vapour pressures, surface temperatures, drafts, material durability,
and material VOC emission rates ergo its more than thermal comfort.
• Ventilation (V) in and by itself does not guarantee air quality as its
function is to exhaust indoor air and replace it with outdoor air. One
would think that a higher ventilation rate would be better than a
lower ventilation rate but if the outdoor air is contaminated with
ozone or has a high humidity, bringing more air in from outside
actually makes the inside worse.
• Air Conditioning(AC) or conditioning the air allows the designer to
treat the air through dilution, filtration, deodorization, temperature
regulation, dehumidification, humidification, and air velocity control
ergo it is not just cooling.
You can see now that the H in HVAC is not exclusively heating comfort, the
V is not exclusively air quality and the AC is not exclusively cooling comfort.
Once you can get beyond HVAC as being an air based system for thermal
comfort and air quality you can begin to understand the value of
incorporating the building itself into the definition of HVAC and by doing so
can assign the thermal comfort component to a radiant surface and assign
the ventilation and conditioning of incoming air to a direct ducted or as
many in ASHRAE have adopted, a “dedicated outdoor air system” or DOAS.
The dedicated outdoor air system can be as basic as an ERV or HRV and it
could include the use of stand alone or integrated high performance
humidification and filtration equipment. It could be defined by separate
exhaust fans with a makeup air unit which could offer many options for
conditioning incoming air such or the DOAS might be defined as an
integrated system using desiccants and renewable resources for
regeneration.
Regardless of the DOAS, the removal of the sensible cooling and heating for
comfort results in significantly smaller ducted system.
Conclusion
One can be riding up a ski lift freezing your buns off but inhaling great air
quality or one could be totally comfortable laying back on the sofa but
inhaling radon gases - so never confuse air quality with thermal comfort and
vice versa.
• Heating the air in a space does not make you comfortable. See
radiant based HVAC.
• Heating a space does not control the quantity of moisture in the air.
See Myth #9 in Radiant Mythology.
• You can be comfortable in an environment with poor air quality.
• Conditioned air can be cool-dry and dirty or hot-moist and
clean...ideally it should be clean and between 30% to 45% rh and 65
deg F to 80 deg F. See indoor air quality.
• When discussing HVAC with your builder or mechanical contractor
please understand the folks designing your interior environment very
rarely study the relationship between architecture, mechanical
systems and human physiology. Unfortunately that's our North
American system.
Fortunately good information on indoor environmental quality is readily
available, is based on science, is desirable, specifiable and obtainable in
your home or cottage.
Introduction: Fundamentals of Indoor Environmental
Quality
This section of our website is based on the work of:
David Scheatzle, Ph.D., Arizona State University, Andrew Marsh, Ph.D.,
Welsh School of Architecture and Square One Research, Ole Fanger, Ph.D.
with Bjarne Olesen, Ph.D., both of the Danish Technical University, Fred
Rohles Jr., Ph.D., Kansas State University, Gary Settles, Ph.D. of Penn State
University and Dwayne Suter, Ph.D., (Ret.)Texas A&M. We are grateful for
their contributions to building science and human comfort.

(Please see our list of additional resources, references and

contributors)
It is our hope that these next pages will find their way into every architect,
interior and mechanical designers hands and to every consumer, trades
person and distributor of HVAC equipment; please understand that
Architecture and HVAC is not about conditioning buildings, its about
conditioning people.
Note : These pages are best viewed in high resolution 1400 x 1050 format
with high speed performance web servers

Section 2: What is Thermal Comfort?

Thermal comfort is one of six key metrics within indoor environmental
quality and is defined by building scientists and healthcare professionals as,
"that condition of mind that expresses
satisfaction with the thermal environment." (see
Indoor Air Quality)
In other words, comfort is not a piece of equipment
like a furnace or air conditioner as manufacturers
would have you believe, and it is not something we
create for the sake of an inanimate building.
If you follow along with this reasoning, then would
you agree that for us humans to really understand
comfort we should have (paraphrasing Jonas Salk)
some rudimentary understanding of how our mind gets information from our
architectural settings? If this makes sense to you, then it probably make
sense that we should try to understand how our environments influence our
bodies. Agree?
I think we can also agree with this excerpt from ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55,
Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy which states,
"there are large variations, both physiologically and psychologically, from
person to person, it is difficult to satisfy everyone in a space. The
environmental conditions required for comfort are not the same for
everyone."
In fact, we know most folks only voice a negative observation when they
experience discomfort as opposed to expressing satisfaction when they are
in the absence of discomfort ('..caused by an unwanted cooling (or heating)

of the whole or one particular part of the body.'). So the objective in

architectural and mechanical design is to create an environment acceptable
by a certain percentage of the occupants.
To accomplish this we must study human physiology.
Authoritative Drawing, Architectural Guide to Radiant Based HVAC Systems
shows the relationships between building and mechanical components for
cold weather environments.

Click here to visit Human Physiology 1

"The absence or presence of heat is one of the primary

environmental factors affecting human comfort. We pay enormous
attention to the five main sensory organs in our bodies, yet often
overlook our true sixth sense, thermal sensitivity."
A. Marsh, Ph D, B. Arch. (Hon)

Suggested Reading:
• Indoor Air Quality
• In a Town Called Comfort Only the Blind Can See
• Our Perfect Bodies
• School for Blind Children
• Body science for kids