Energy-efficient cooling of non-residential buildings with multi-functional heat pipes in novel thermally activated building components

The transition of the European building sector towards the zero-emission goals of the European green deal remains an ongoing challenge. An increasing need for cooling systems exists for a large share of the buildings especially during spring, summer and autumn with a quite high consumption of primary energy. One of the common technologies for cooling of buildings are thermally activated building systems (TABS). Even though, they are widely used, they still show great potential for improvements in energy efficiency and the utilization of thermal comfort. Therefore, this work presents a full-scale prototype of a novel thermally activated concrete slab with multi-functional heat pipes to mitigate the drawbacks of conventional TABS. The novel TABS provide passive energy-efficient cooling at high thermal comfort by utilising large areas with high homogeneous heat dissipation and great thermal storage capabilities of the concrete components. According to the double-function of the heat pipes for passive cooling and as reinforcement in TABS, construction costs can be reduced and construction processes enhanced. Furthermore, numerical simulations are carried out to identify the effects of material parameter manipulation and different design configurations on the cooling capacity of the TABS. The results can be facilitated to reduce the primary energy demand and the peak power requirement of a cooling system with specially tailored design choices and concrete compositions. • Energy demand for cooling of non-residential buildings should be significantly reduced. • Performance of radiant cooling systems needs to be improved for high thermal comfort. • A thermally activated concrete ceiling with multi-functional heat pipes is developed. • The structural and thermal double function of heat pipes reduces materials and costs. • Functional optimisation is achieved by a parameter study based on a numerical model. • The novel system greatly enhances temperature uniformity and cooling performance.