What is Thermal Component Activation?

The usage of load-bearing components (such as the floor, roof or walls) for storing thermal energy can guarantee a constant and cozy living comfort. 

Through TCA, peaks of outdoor temperature can easily be counterbalanced.

 An important property of TCA is that it is not only used for heating, but also for cooling. The possiblity of cooiling has already proven to be valuable and, in many cases, necessary contribution for ensuring high thermal comofort throughout the year, even for residential buildings. In light of the current climate change, the importance of this topic will increase significantly in the near future.

Renewable energy, such as that created by the use of wind (windmills) or sun (photovoltaics) in the form of electricity or from thermal solar energy systems in the form of energy supplied from heat are not available at all times, but at irregular time interval that are difficult to accurately predict.

The energy revolution, i.e. the switch to the sole use of renewable energy, is closely linked to the question of the effective storage of energy for this reason. 

With a sufficiently high number of buildings with thermally-activated components, the adoption of peak currents from renewable energy help to smooth out supply peaks and, concersely, to minimise the need for electricity at the time when supply is low. 

The uniform surface temperatures in a room heated or cooled by TCA ensures very good thermal comfort. Due to the absence of convective excahnge with large-scale heater, the distribution of dust and harmful substances is prevented. This means that the health value of room conditioned with TCA is to be classifed much higher than that of a conventionally heated room. 

Thermal component activation (TCA) denotes systems for heating and cooling rooms or entire buildings whose distinctive feature is that the heating and cooling registers are set in concrete or wood components while the building is beeing constructed. Due to the typically very high effective exchanger surface, heating and cooling systems are classified as "surface heating".

Since the heat output of a radiotor is nearly proportional to the radiators surface when the temperature of heating medium is kept uniform, with surface heating, the necessary heat output can be achieved with temperatures of heating medium which are only slightly above the set temperature of the room to be heated.