Simulation of ‘under-floor heating design and installation guide’ by CIBSE in Lebanon

Abstract

The utilization of high temperature heating systems in households is closely related to excessive and inefficient energy consumption. The under-floor heating system is a low temperature heating system that has the advantages of lower heat distribution losses and higher efficiency in comparison to the high temperature radiator system. The presence of a known standard that eases the design process of the heating system enhances the knowledge of the locals of the heating system and hence encourages its use. In this thesis, I aim to encourage the implementation of under-floor heating in Lebanon. The ‘CIBSE under-floor heating design and installation guide’ emerges as a good candidate to be implemented in this country for all the detailed data it offers about the system starting from design guidelines to installation and maintenance procedures. The adoption of this international standard in Lebanon will be tested to check if this standard can be applied in the country. The viability of using this standard will be studied by merging the design guidelines and recommendations with the Lebanese construction standards. Afterwards, the outcomes of the heating system will be validated and studied. Moreover, this thesis will go a step further from the international standard by studying the thermal comfort of the indoor climate of the household under study. A traditional household in the worst climatic zone in Lebanon in terms of heating season will be the case study of this analysis. The household will be assumed to follow the common construction practice in Lebanon as defined in the Lebanese building code. The household understudy shall be modeled using ‘Computational Fluid Dynamics’ to analyze the thermal behavior of the under-floor heating system. All the design input data shall be involved in the model to calculate the outcomes of the design suggested by the standard. The indoor air temperature profile will be achieved for the apartment and an assessment in terms of thermal comfort will be made to