Measurement and Simulation of Heating Energy for Apartments with District Heating

Heating energy was measured in an apartment housing unit with a district heating system, varying the kind of hot water distributors. Ondol coils passing through a living room raised the temperature of the room where the heating was turned off. Including this characteristic of Ondol heating into the modeling, we performed simulations and showed a verification by comparison with the results of measurements. As a result, a main flow control method, which changes hot water flow rate supplied to a housing unit according to the thermal load, can reduce the supplied flow rate and lower the return temperature, compared with a constant flow method. That can result in decreased heat loss in utility-pipe conduits even though the heating energy supplied is almost the same. An outdoor reset control that raises the temperature of the supplied hot water if the outdoor temperature falls has the effect of a quicker response in heating than the reduced flow rate and return temperature.