Indoor climate modelling and economic analysis regarding the energetic rehabilitation of a church

Abstract

Background: The aim of our study was to identify an optimal heating system for the analyzed church. We also evaluated the energy consumption of the existing system and of those proposed in order to choose the best heating system. Methods: We analyzed the current existing heating system, a mixed system (static heaters and hot air heating) in a Romanian heritage church, build in the 16th century, and we compared it with an underfloor heating system that has been mentioned in the literature as an alternative for church heating. We used a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the indoor climate with two turbulence models (k-ϵ and k-ω). Results: Comparing the two heating systems through boxplot graphs, we could highlight pertinent conclusions regarding the temperatures and velocities of the measured air currents. Thus, of all the heating systems, the underfloor heating had the lowest temperatures, but the highest air velocities, in the churchgoers area, especially under the towers zone. Conclusions: We observed that the underfloor heating system was more efficient than the existing heating system (static heaters and hot air heating), ensuring heritage conservation and high thermal comfort to the churchgoers.