radiant floor heating and leed

patrickaz

would anyone know of a method to calculate annual energy use by a radiant floor heating system (rfhs) for use in a leed nc 2.2 eac1 submittal? i am thinking there may be a formula based on the number hdd days but have not found anything either geared to a rfhs or usgbc related. thanx in advance.

GMcD

LEED Energy Models

The radiant floor alone cannot be calculated. It's the whole building energy use that has to be modeled using a proper energy modeling software package. The catch is that nearly all of the conventional building energy modeling tools are based on core calculations that are all using instantaneous "air" temperature so you have to "adjust" (fudge, manipulate, play with) the program to to properly simumate a mean radiant temperature and "resultant" temperature model to get anywhere near close to realistic results for a combined mean radiant system in a building.