The use of the resilient materials in the radiant floor heating systems of reinforced concrete floor in apartment housing is closely related to the reduction of the floor impact sound and the heating energy loss.
Thermal conductivity of concrete floor.
Thermal mass effect thermal mass is a property that enables precast concrete floors to absorb store and later release significant amounts of heat.
It is a readymixed concrete solution offering improved thermal conductivity performance actual range λ 0 45 to 0 54 w m k with assured structural performance 30 n mm2.
Thermal conductivity is a material property that describes ability to conduct heat thermal conductivity can be defined as the quantity of heat transmitted through a unit thickness of a material in a direction normal to a surface of unit area due to a unit temperature gradient under steady state conditions.
Thermal conductivity of a concrete slab indicates the rate of heat transfer through the solid mass by conduction usually in regard to heat transfer to or from the ground.
From this the thermal transmittance u value w m 2 k of a building element is calculated as the inverse of the sum of the r values of the component parts and adjacent air layers.
Example u value concrete wall.
Thermal conductivity of building materials thermal conductivity of building materials acoustic plasterboard aerated concrete slab 500kg m3 aluminium asphalt 1700kg m3 bitumen impregnated fibreboard brickwork outer leaf 1700kg m3 brickwork inner leaf 1700kg m3 dense aggregate concrete block 1800 kg m3 exposed.
A concrete wall with thickness 0 25 m and conductivity 1 7 w mk is used for the default values in the calculator above.
When the concrete floor is heated the heat rises warming everything in the room.
And consequently and significantly increases coefficient of thermal conductivity of concrete.
Due to it s density and low conductivity concrete retains heat very well.
When wet the latter is displaced by water.
Low conductivity and structural concrete low thermally conductive concrete is proven to improve energy performance in buildings.
The u value can be calculated as.
The thermal resistance or r value m 2 k w is calculated by dividing the thickness of the material in metres by the k value.
The inside and outside surface resistance is estimated to 5 8 m 2 k w.
I do think concrete floor heat is a great way to go.
The thermal performance of standard o reilly hollowcore floor slabs is 25 better in average com paring to the same slabs with open voids.
The coefficient of thermal conductivity k is proportional to density of the concrete among other factors.
When the thermal mass of the concrete is heated the warm slab acts as a radiator distributing even heat throughout the structure.