Thin Flooring Panel Development for Energy Efficiency of an Ondol Heating System

Abstract

According to a Seoul Housing Corporation report, due to low heat conductivity of wood insulation, management difficulties have occurred in wood flooring panels, one of the main panels used in the Korean Ondol heating system used in Korean housing. Although many researchers have studied flooring panels to date, they have not sufficiently addressed heat conductivity and bending resistance improvements. This research aims to improve heat conductivity of conventional panels, developing thin flooring panels for better heating energy conduction. The panel that this research proposes would provide economic benefits by decreasing the panel thickness. In addition, improvement in bending resistance was found to prevent wood shrinkage. A comparison with conventional panels shows a 30% increase in heat conductivity, and 7.2% reduction of energy consumption. The panel that this research proposes will be applicable effectively to the Korean Ondol system.