Electric radiator

[monkeydl123]

If I understand correctly, CEA modeled radiator as hot water radiator, integrating the losses to distribute hot water. May I ask in the case we consider electrical radiator, is it meaning full to imply that the supply and return water temperature is the same, so that we won't have any losses and we can model the electrical radiator that way?

Thank you for taking your time considering this request, hope to hear from you soon.

[ShiZhongming]

Hi @monkeydl123

Thanks for the question. You are correct that CEA models radiator using hot water, there is no electrical-radiator model yet.

We think what you described as a proxy will be unlikely to work.

1. Setting the supply and return temperature the same will lead to an error.
2. If you set the delta as 0.1 degrees C, it will means much higher volume of hot water demand. You could use an electrical boiler to produce such hot water, however, a boiler and an electrical radiator have very much different operating conditions and efficiency.

Hence, we would not recommend doing so.

[monkeydl123]

thank you @ShiZhongming for the fast response. In that case, do you have any suggest for an easy way in case we want to model electrical heater, since this equipment is quite common in cold climate?, or should we make a literature review, select a model and adapt it to CEA?

[ShiZhongming]

@monkeydl123

It would be great if could produce a model and potentially integrate integrate it to CEA. Here is a breif description of how to do so. It is a bit outdated but it still shows the steps. Please note that you may have to fork instead of branch out from the CEA Master Branch. https://city-energy-analyst.readthedocs.io/en/latest/how-to-contribute.html