A study on the heat dissipation and thermal environment of a novel heated bed

This study proposes a novel heated bed that can heat the whole room in the daytime and heat the surroundings of the bed at night. The conditions of conversion between the daytime and nighttime are achieved by the opening and closing of the fan and vents. The simplified calculation method of heat dissipation of the bed was obtained via the flow and heat transfer process analysis in two heating modes. Numerical simulations of heat dissipation and indoor thermal environment under different conditions in the daytime and nighttime were performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to master the indoor temperature distribution characteristics. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results and show good agreement. The results show that the maximum of heat dissipation can reach 1300 W in the daytime and the indoor thermal environment can meet the human thermal comfort requirement. At night, the bed can create a high-temperature circle around it, which can ensure the sleep thermal comfort of the human body at a cooler indoor thermal environment, whose temperature can be 5°C lower than normal conditions. The heated bed can achieve the time-sharing district heating of room and reduce the heating energy consumption significantly. This study can provide the design and selection basis for the heated bed.