Radiant Panel Heating and Cooling Panels are known to be energy efficient and moderate-temperature (low exergy) demanding systems. This paper shows that this may not be the general case unless low-exergy waste and alternative energy sources are matched. In this respect the benefits of coupling radiant panels with heat pumps are discusses in this paper. Case studies about different scenarios are compared with a base case, which represents a radiant panel system connected to ordinary boilers in heating and ordinary chillers in cooling. Results show that substantial CO2 emission reduction potential is present if radiant panels are optimally operated with ground-source heat pumps, which are driven by a matching combined heat and power system.
