The objectives of this study were to investigate the thermally activated building system (TABS) mechanism for appropriate use of the system and to apply the proper concept of TABS for each zone by using different TABS control strategies. In order to examine the TABS mechanism, dynamic simulation with EnergyPlus was used to model the office building with TABS, because the radiant heat exchange characteristics of the TABS according to the time variable was critical. The typical control concept of TABS, self-regulation, was applied in the simulation by setting the supply water temperature as room setpoint temperature. As a result, the advantage of self-regulation can be amplified by utilizing the entire thermal mass of the TABS, which can be executed by customizing to target a specific type of load. Since the large area of the office building may comprise different loads in different zones, the TABS control according to the different zone loads were proposed. By separating the control strategy from zone to zone, the proposed control strategy improved the thermal comfort by 5%, reduced peak heating load by 10%, reduced cooling load by 36%, and decrease the total energy consumption by 13%. This study demonstrated a possible improvement on self-regulation of TABS with separate zone controls.

The objective of this study is to establish boundary conditions to evaluate the cooling capacity of the Cooling Radiant Ceiling Panel (CRCP) considering the environment of a room equipped with the CRCP. The current study investigated the boundary conditions and derivation techniques from previous studies. Based on the results of the analysis, a heat transfer model was derived for a room fitted with CRCP. In addition, the heat transfer model was used to derive the factors affecting the cooling capacity of the CRCP and each factor was simulated and verified through this model. The effects of these factors on the capacity of the CRCP was established by using various boundary conditions. To verify the validity of the simulation model, the experimental results were compared with the cooling capacity for a specific case. As a result, it was established that even for the same panel, there was a variance in the cooling capacity of the CRCP based on the boundary conditions and that the influence of the surface exposed to the outdoors had more implications. Consequently, this study presents the influence factors to be considered when designing CRCP.

In this study, we propose a method for the evaluation of the thermal output of radiant heating panels by employing a modification of the currently used method, which is recommended by existing standards, using cooling plates. We aim to overcome the absence in the measurement method of the downward thermal output as well as to address the challenges in the control of the heat transfer resistance of the heat transfer layer, which arise due to the contact resistance between the layers. Using the modified method, we compare the thermal performance of three types of raised floor integrated radiant heating panels that have different filler materials for the bottom insulation of the panel. We show that the most efficient sample panel is the one that is not filled with a material; with an efficiency of 70.1%. In addition, we show that the value of the gradient of the characteristic curve calculated by the existing method ranged between 7.2% to 14.9% larger than that obtained by modified method. This difference is attributed to the heat transfer resistance of the heat transfer layer that is present in the experiments, and has a value in the interval of 0.1096 ${\mathrm{m}}^2\mathrm{K}/\mathrm{W}$ to 0.1582 ${\mathrm{m}}^2\mathrm{K}/\mathrm{W}$ . This is caused by the contact resistance between the heat transfer layer and other layers, even though the heat transfer resistance of the heat transfer layer used in the experiment is 0.0985 ${\mathrm{m}}^2\mathrm{K}/\mathrm{W}$ . The modified method proposed in this study reveals that the experimental results are not influenced by the heat transfer resistance of the heat transfer layer. We also show that our experimental results are reproducible.

Automated blinds need to be controlled to maximize benefits of daylight to enhance occupant comfort and to reduce energy consumption. However, previous control methods focused on minimizing the negative impacts of daylight, but failed to maximize the positive impacts of daylight and solar heat gain. The objective of this study is to develop an optimized control algorithm for automated venetian blind which would reduce the negative effects of incoming daylight on visual comfort of occupants, and to minimize psychological anxieties caused by frequent motions of the blind, by maximizing the positive effects of incoming daylight and solar irradiation, by opening/closing of the blind. Through implementation of the proposed methods and algorithms, the direct glare on work-planes could be prevented at all time, and also incoming daylight and solar irradiation could be increased.