Research On The Influence Of Thermal Mass On Energy Consumption In Intermittent Heating Room

Indoor thermal environment has received more and more attentions in HVAC study andapplication fields with increasing in urbanization and industrialization in China．Some standards inhot summer and cold winter(HSCW)zone have been promulgated for guiding the HVAC andenergy-efficiency design of residential buildings in these zones．In order to improve formidableindoor thermal environments in residential buildings in winter,conventional and novel heatingfacilities have been used for room heating in the zones mentioned above，such as gas-firedfurnaces， electric heaters、 oil stoves and panel heating membranes.But, heating energyconsumption is highly and difficult be estimated in winter in the HSCW zone．Considering thecharacteristics of indoor and outdoor climate variation in HSCW zone，high-efficient andhigh·comfort heating techniques and facilities should be employed to make effective energyconsumption．Residential buildings in the hot summer and cold winter zones are not equipped with centralheating systems, and intermittent heating is usually used for room heating in this climate zone inwinter. This may result in unsteady heat transfer process of the regenerator material during theheating time, and the thermal mass strongly affects the rise rate of the indoors temperature and theenergy consumption index. With the sustainable and stable growth of Chinese economy and thehigh requirements of people’s comfort for building, more and more southerner intensively appealto realize central heating, Residential building heating in hot summer and cold winter zone isrelative to human health and livelihood benefit and therefore a key step towards the target ofrealizing a well-off society in China．In this paper, The variations of the energy consumption indices with the length of heatingtime for different heat mass gain are measured and analyzed in an artificial climate chamber. Theresults show that thermal mass will substantially increase the value of energy consumption index(ECI) within a short-term heating time because the regenerators take and store thermal energy inthe heating process, the value of ECI will be gradually reduced with the increase of heating time.The higher the thermal mass and temperature difference between indoor and outdoor air, theslower decreasing speed of the ECI value. In addition, it is difficult to control the indoor air temperature in an appropriate range to meet the needs of thermal comfort in a short period of timewhen the heat mass is large.