LARGE ENVIRONMENTS > CHURCHES/MUSEUMS
HEATING IN CHURCHES
Heating large environments such as churches with the traditional systems results in huge energy waste with unsatisfactory results as far as the required fuel and the maintenance costs, as well as the architectonical impact.
THE DISADVANTAGES OF TRADITIONAL AIR HEATING SYSTEMS
St. Umberto's Church - Reggia of Venaria Reale
Hot air tends to flow upwards, while the church-goers feel very cold.
With the traditional hot air systems that are normally used to heat churches, a large amount of hot air is forced to circulate in the environment by means of huge fans. This hot air flows quickly towards the ceiling, heating that part first, and only later bringing heat at men height. At the same time cold air currents are formed, and they create discomfort among the people. Furthermore some areas tend to be too dry and hot and other areas too cold.
HEATING WITH THE NEW GENERATION OF LOW TEMPERATURE RADIANT FLOORS BY "DELTASOLAR"
Heat for the church-goers and not for the ceiling
With this new heating system, churches are heated only where it is needed: on the floor to warm the church-goers. The ceiling, on the contrary, remains almost cold, and this allows to save up to 50% in thermal energy. It was also noticed that the people, arriving from the outside and being cold, are welcomed by a nice sensation of warmth, feeling the floor just warm, and not hot (as it would be with the old generation of radiant floors).
Suggested by the Board for Monuments
It is known that air systems create damages to decorations and art works such as wall paintings and canvases, which, due to the sudden thermal variations, tend to get quickly ruined. With DELTASOLAR’s radiant floors, already used in several art buildings such as the Church of San Lorenzo, the Mole Antonelliana, the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Diana Gallery at Venaria Castel, this doesn’t happen because these systems are characterized by low heat, and the floor’s surface temperature is about 25-28°C.
Church of San Lorenzo - Turin
Great comfort
Since the floor temperature is about 10°C lower than that of a human being, the church-goers feel the maximum comfort: they don’t feel cold, and they aren’t bothered by dry air.
No noise
Air heating is annoying also because of its noise. On the contrary, radiant floors are totally silent.
Maximum flexibility for any shape
DELTASOLAR’s system is free from any bound (such as grids or mushroom insulating panels used by other companies); this means that the pipes can be placed around any obstacle, as in the picture displayed here.
Highly customizable
Air systems have to heat the whole volume of the church before heat can be felt by the people: this results in a thermal energy loss that doesn’t happen with Deltasolar’s radiant floors. During the week or when there aren’t many church-goers it is possible to warm only the most used areas, such as the altar area, the first seat rows and also the entrance. The unused areas can remain cold or have a lower temperature.
Easy to manage
It is possible to set the temperature in the churches both manually and automatically, according to the need; this grants at the same time comfort and energy saving.
Deltasolar’s system can be adapted to any shape
Cleaning the furniture
While hot air systems lift a lot of dust and stain the walls, Deltasolar’s radiant floors don’t create any air movement, and therefore they don’t lift any dust. This means that cleaning the furniture won’t be as needed as in the environments with the traditional systems.
Invisibility
Hot air generators or air channeling ruin the architecture of the environments with the piping, false ceilings or with air vents. Radiant floors, on the contrary, are totally invisible.
Fire safety
The thermal unit of a hot air system has to be placed close to the environments that need heating. With radiant floors, the heater, the pump or any other heat generator, can be placed even far away. This grants the safety of the building, the church-goers or the art works.
Quick set-up
Deltasolar’s technicians have resolved all the problems that characterized the old generation of radiant floors.
Setting up the system and reaching the desired temperature is quite easy and quick, because the pipes are placed a few centimeters underneath the floor and, aside from being thermally insulated, they are designed to maximize the thermal exchange surface.
It was also set up a system that allows to reduce the temperature of the water to about 30-35°C as soon as the floor reaches the desired temperature.
Mole Antonelliana in Turin
Cool during Summer
Even though old churches don’t have problems of air-conditioning during summer, Deltasolar’s systems can also provide, if needed, an air-conditioning system at a convenient cost both with a heat pump and with the use of cool water.
In the latter case, a large building can be conditioned with less than 30 cents an hour.
Huge energy saving
As it was mentioned before, with Deltasolar’s system it is not mandatory to heat the whole volume of the church. Only the floor needs to be heated: due to the low temperature the air flows upwards slowly, and it cools down while it flows upwards.
For this reason, Deltasolar was chosen to install their radiant floors to heat and air-condition the Mole Antonelliana in Turin, whose height reaches 78 meters: this wouldn’t have been possible with the traditional systems.
DELTASOLAR’s technicians are ready to analyze the different problems of the different buildings in order to solve them and propose customized solutions.