Developed in the 80s in Scandinavia, the principle of cooling and heating by ceiling beam now comprises a large element of current techniques for the conditioning of large buildings in northern Europe, the UK, Germany and the Benelux countries, and for several years now also in France. Describes the principles of chilled beam conditioning.
Cooling ceiling systems are controlling only the sensible heat balance of the rooms; they are always combined with a ventilation system foreseen to control indoor humidity and to cover air renewal requirements. Between the types of cooling ceiling in use, the passive chilled beams seem to be the most sensitive to ventilation air influence. Jn most of the cases, the ventilation outlets are located in the ceiling void, and consequently this generates a penalty on the beam cooling power. The work presented aims at estimating this influence, through results issued from experimental studies.