Posts Tagged ‘underfloor heating’
Underfloor Electric Heating. Part III – Penny wise, pound foolish.
It would only have cost me an extra £170, a small extra compared to the cost of the rest of the build, but I decided against laying thermal insulation boards directly under the underfloor electric heating mats. Surely better to leak some of the heat down to heat the 100mm thick concrete screed which would maintain its heat through those cold winter weeks, giving thermal support to the heating mats in heating the room space above. I’d convinced myself that that would be the case. Penny wise but pound foolish. I should have thermally simulated my assumptions before hand.
Tags: electronics cooling, flotherm, FloVENT, HVAC, underfloor heating
Underfloor Electric Heating. Part II – Infrared Thermography
3D simulation can provide a detailed prediction of temperature and heat flux values at 10s of 1000s of points in a 3D model, experimental methods are somewhat limited in terms of the wealth of data they are capable of providing. But hey, this isn’t going to degrade into a pitched battle between simulators and experimentalists, nowadays good engineers (should) do both. “No one believes simulation results apart from the person who performed them whilst everyone believes experimental results apart from the person who took them”, a seminal quote indeed. Whereas thermocouples will provide a point value temperature measurement, infrared thermography will provide 2D surface temperature images, much more akin to the type of output available from simulation tools such as FloTHERM and FloVENT.
Tags: electronics cooling, flotherm, FloVENT, HVAC, underfloor heating
Underfloor Electric Heating. Part I: In by Christmas
It’s been over two years since the foundations went in for the extension we’re building on our house. In that time I’ve come to respect and somewhat rely on glib phrases such as “Good things come to those who wait” and “Patience is a virtue”. I told my better half we’d be moved in by Christmas, I didn’t say which one though. In this blog series of the time I used FloVENT to simulate the beneficial thermal effects of the layer of sub-floor expanded foam insulation that UK building regulations insist on. There’s not much point in insulation unless you’ve added some heat to keep inside. Being located in quite a rural location we’re not on the gas mains, we haven’t got an oil tank to power a boiler so the only heating options are wall mounted electric storage heaters or underfloor electric heating mats. I’m not a big fan of wearing socks inside and I don’t like cold feet. I opted for the latter.
Tags: electronics cooling, flotherm, FloVENT, HVAC, underfloor heating
About Robin Bornoff's blog
Views and insights into the concepts behind electronics cooling with a specific focus on the application of FloTHERM to the thermal simulation of electronic systems. Investigations into the application of FloVENT to HVAC simulation. Plus the odd foray into CFD, non-linear dynamic systems and cider making.
Latest Posts
- Why Not Just Shove a Heatsink on Top of it? Part 2: Heat Flow Budgets
- Why Not Just Shove a Heatsink on Top of it? Part 1
- Experiment vs. Simulation, Part 5: Detailed IC Package Model Calibration Methodology
- CFD – Colourful Friday Distractions
- Experiment vs. Simulation, Part 4: Compact Thermal Models
- Experiment vs. Simulation, Part 3: JESD51-14