The purpose of this paper is to investigate what the heat exchange coefficient for floor cooling is and to study the consequences of using different reference temperatures in the space for calculating the heat exchange between the floor surface and the space. Sometimes the heat exchange is calculated as total heat exchange, convection and radiation combined. In other cases, it is calculated separately for radiation and convection. This paper presents a theoretical discussion of this heat exchange coefficient. Based on an experimental study with measured values of surface and air temperatures, together with measured values of the total heat exchange between a cooled floor and a test space, the heat exchange coefficient is calculated. These calculations are done for different space reference temperatures, and a calculation procedure is recommended.

Units: SI