Heat in Industrial Buildings

There are primarily three sources of heat in an industrial building:

• Solar Heat Gains through Structure
• Internal Machinery, Lighting & Occupancy
• Ventilation

Of the above, solar heat gains forms much of the load during peak season, especially if the roof is made of GI or Galvanium sheets. The thermograph below shows the temperature profile for inside surface of the roof of an industrial building.

The roof absorbs all the solar radiation during the day. However, a metal roof has very low thermal mass compared to a RCC roof and therefore, the rise in temperature of the roof is much higher for a metal roof.

Though insulation can reduce the amount of solar heat gains, the surface temperature of the roof is still significantly high during summer months.

Radiant Cooling

Cooling is the process of taking the heat away and there are only three ways of heat transfer as shown below:

Air conditioning uses convection as a means of heat transfer whereas Radiant Cooling uses radiant heat transfer as the primary means of heat transfer. Radiant Cooling uses “heat sinks” in ceiling or floor to take the heat away from the space as shown below.

Radiant Ceiling Cooling

Radiant Ceiling Panels have been used in many industrial buildings in Europe & North America for heating and cooling. Oorja has poineered and provides radiant cooling solutions.

These panels act as heat sinks or sources depending on whether they are being used for cooling or heating. These cooling panels block the heat radiated from the metal roof and absorb the heat from the space below, thus cooling the space.

The above thermograph shows the radiant panel temperature that workers are exposed to compared to much higher temperatures without them.

Radiant Floor Cooling

Radiant Cooling can also be done by embedding specialized pipes in the floor to make it a heat sink as shown below.