Analysis of the Part Load Ratio Characteristics and Gas Energy Consumption of a Hot Water Boiler in a Residential Building under Korean Climatic Conditions

Residential buildings account for a significant portion of the total building-energy usage in Korea, and a variety of research studies on the domestic boiler have therefore been carried out; however, most of these studies examined the boiler itself, whereby the part-load ratio characteristics and the corresponding gas-energy consumption patterns were not analyzed. In this study, the part-load ratio and operating characteristics of a domestic gas boiler were analyzed within a residential building equipped with a radiant floor-heating system; in addition, the energy consumption between condensing and conventional boilers was comparatively analyzed. Our results show that significant portions of the total operating hours, heating load, and energy consumption are in the part-load ratio range of 0 through 40%, whereby the energy consumption was significantly affected by the boiler efficiency under low part-load conditions. These results indicate that the part-load operation of a boiler is an important factor in residential buildings; furthermore, replacing a conventional boiler with a condensing boiler can reduce annual gas-energy usage by more than 20%.