Historical changes and recent energy saving potential of residential heating in Korea

The residential heating method in Korea underwent various phases of development to reach the current system. The first phase was the traditional Ondol (the traditional under floor heating system in Korea), where the floor was heated by the circulation of hot gas produced by a fire furnace (before the 1950s). The second phase involved the use of the modified anthracite coal Ondol, for which the fire furnace was modified for briquette use (from the early 1950s to the late 1970s). The third phase involved the use of hot water radiant floor heating with embedded tubes (from the late 1970s). This paper presents insights into the problem of current residential heating in Korea and the general aspects of heating energy savings by tracing the history of residential heating in Korea and analyzing related data. The results show that modern apartment buildings with hot water radiant floor heating (the third phase) yield less heat loss due to the tighter envelope, but also yield higher energy consumption than the traditional Ondol heating housing (the first phase). Because of an inefficient system and lack of thermal insulation of the traditional Ondol heating housing, Ondol heating was used to heat occupants sitting directly on the floor, keeping lower room temperature and higher floor surface temperature. So the range of comfortable floor temperature for Korean people is higher and this unique comfort sense is related to energy consumption in modern apartment housing. As a result, several energy saving methods were found such as reducing the total floor heating area or zoning the floor area, receiving continuous heat supply, and installing a delicate control system and metering devices.