Researchers at Canada’s National Research Council (NRC-IRC) are simultaneously evaluating various thermal comfort parameters in two identical rooms in their Ventilation and Wall Research House with the help of a new innovative tool they have developed.

Thermal comfort is important to the well being of building occupants, and there are international standards that define the values required to achieve optimal conditions. In the Ventilation and Wall Research House, one room is heated by a forced-air heating system and the other by a hydronic radiant-heating system. One of the main features of the latter is that it has the potential to provide more uniform temperature conditions from floor to ceiling than a convective system. Due to the physical properties of water, a hydronic system can transport a given amount of heating energy using less than 5% of the energy required by a conventional motor paired with a fan-set. Combined with more efficient forced-air systems, hydronic systems also have the potential to offer improved comfort and substantial energy savings.

The objective of the current research project is to confirm the features of the different systems and their potentials for improved comfort and energy savings. To help them in their work, the researchers are using two automated 3-D robotic systems to measure spatially distributed indoor environment parameters, reveals the organization. The 3-D systems are able to do a side-by-side evaluation of the thermal comfort that can be achieved with the two different heating systems (the forced-air system and the hydronic radiant-heating system). The evaluation involves comparing the vertical air temperature, the floor temperature and drafts, or air velocity. Current experiments are expected to run into Fall 2007.