Automating the process of drawing floor heating systems on to floor plans
Floor heating is a common method for space heating in Iceland and requires authorization from building regulatory authorities in the form of a permit before integration. The permit is only provided if necessary documentation is admitted, a design of the floor heating system along with technical details about the system. These designs are mostly done by engineering firms in Iceland which use proprietary solutions that require special knowledge and expertise. The pricing, time and complexity which the process of applying for a permit requires has driven individuals integrating floor heating to their personal housing to avoid going through the process, causing documentation to be neglected. In this project the automation of the process of drawing a floor heating system on floor plans is achieved with a model made in Python. Three floor plans were used to test the capabilities of the model and with the last floor plan the comparison between the model design and the design made in practice by an experienced individual, working in the field of floor heating installations, are compared. The floor plans supplied to the model were copies of actual floor plans found online which were then manually converted to 2-dimensional matrices with unique values interpreting walls and empty space. The results generated by the model demonstrated a similar layout design of the system and lengths of independent circuits when compared to the actual design and lengths of the system made by the expert. In its current form the model malfunctions for certain dimensions when making independent floor heating circuits causing inefficient spacing or coverage, but still returns a design for the whole floor heating system that could save time and give usable results which with minor alternations would be suitable.
Rekstrarverkfræði, Meistaraprófsritgerðir, Drawing, Upphitun húsa, Gólf, Sjálfvirkni, Teikningar, Engineering management, Floor heating systems, Automation
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations