1

Energy Efficient Buildings

Design Heating & Cooling Loads

Design Heating and Cooling Loads
Heating and cooling equipment must be sized to maintain interior conditions at
comfortable levels during most the most extreme weather and occupancy conditions.
Thus for design purposes, calculate the maximum hourly heating and cooling loads,
and select equipment large enough to meet these loads.

Design Heating Load
Major sensible heat flows into a building during winter are shown below.
sol
Q
-
wall
Q
-
people
Q
-
elec
Q
-
win
Q
-
inf
Q
-
grnd
Q
-
ceil
Q
-
T
ia
T
oa


Using the sign convention defined in the figure above, the net heating load out is:


peop elec sol inf grnd win wall ceil out net,
Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q
- - - - - - - - -
+ + + + =

For most extreme case:



oa sa
peop elec sol
T T and 0 Q Q Q = = = =
- - -


Therefore,

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) | |( )
des oa, ia inf grnd win wall ceil
inf grnd win wall ceil des heat,
T T UA UA UA UA UA
Q Q Q Q Q Q
+ + + + =
+ + + + =
- - - - - -


And choose T
oa
= T
oa,min
= T
oa,heating des

Use
des heat,
Q
-
to size furnaces and boilers. The method to size heat pumps is explained in
the chapter on Heat Pumps. Heating equipment is rated by output capacity. For non-
2
max
, max ,
, max ,
I I
T T T
des cooling oa oa oa
des cooling oa oa oa
=
= =
= =
e e e
( )
( )
max oa, oa
lat sen inf
max oa sa
max elec,
max people,
max
max sol,
Q Q Q
I I
h
I
T T Use
Q
Q
I I Q
= + =
= + =
=
- - -
-
-
-
standard sizes, round up. For example, if
(

=
-
hr
Btu
58,000 Q
des heat,
, then specify a furnace
with an output capacity of
(

hr
Btu
60,000

Design Cooling Load
Major sensible heat flows into a building during summer are shown below.
sol
Q
-
wall
Q
-
people
Q
-
elec
Q
-
win
Q
-
inf
Q
-
grnd
Q
-
ceil
Q
-
T
ia
T
oa


Using the sign convention defined in the figure above, the net cooling load in is:

grnd peop elec sol inf win wall ceil in net,
Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q
- - - - - - - - -
+ + + + + + + =

To create the design heat load, consider the most extreme cases when:











Then
des cool, in net,
Q Q
- -
=

And choose:




3
Most cooling equipment is rated in tons of cooling capacity, where:

(

=
hr
Btu
12,000 ton 1 .

Use
des cool,
Q
-
to specify the size of cooling equipment. For non-standard sizes, round up.
For example, if

tons 2.8
Btu
h ton
12,000
1
hr
Btu
34,000
hr
Btu
34,000 Q
des cool,
=
(

=
(

=
-


then specify a 3.0-ton air conditioner.


Design Weather Conditions
Ambient Temperature and Humidity
For calculating peak heating and cooling loads, ASHRAE tabulates the minimum and
maximum outdoor air temperatures and coincident outdoor humidity that is likely to
occur for hundreds of U.S. cities.

For peak heating load calculations, ASHRAE publishes the 99.6% and 99.0% design
conditions, meaning that the actual hourly temperatures were greater (warmer) than
the design temperature 99.6% or 99.0% of all annual hours. The peak heating load
design temperatures for Dayton, OH are shown below. To ensure that the heating
system is large enough to handle the coldest expected temperatures, use the 99.6%
design temperature.

For peak cooling load calculations, ASHRAE publishes the 0.4% and 1.0% design
conditions for temperature (T
db
) and humidity (T
wb
& T
dp
), such that the actual hourly
temperatures were greater (warmer) than the design temperatures 0.4% or 1.0% of all
annual hours. In addition, ASHRAE publishes the mean coincident wet bulb temperature
(MCWB) for each design condition, which is the mean wet bulb temperature at the
specified dry bulb temperature. MCWB temperature is used for calculating peak latent
cooling loads. The peak cooling load design temperatures for Dayton, OH are shown
below. To ensure that the cooling system is large enough to handle the warmest
expected conditions, use the 0.4% design temperatures.




For Dayton DB
99.6% -1 F
99% 5 F


For Dayton DB MCWB
0.4% 90 F 74 F
1.0% 88 F 73 F

4
The outdoor air specific humidity can be determined from dry bulb and mean coincident
wet bulb temperature using a psychrometric chart.

Example

Determine the specific humidity of air when the dry bulb temperature is 88 F and the
wet bulb temperature is 73 F using a psychrometric chart for air at sea level.

w(Tdb = 88 F, Twb =73 F) = 0.014 lbw/lba

Solar Radiation
ASHRAE also publishes a method to calculate peak solar radiation on a surface. An
alternative is to use solar radiation data from Typical Meteorological Year files. To use
this method, use WeaTran to create a 12 24-hour Day Types file. To create the file,
WeaTran selects a representative 24-hour period for each month, and calculates hourly
solar radiation on east, south, west and north exposures from the hourly solar radiation
on a horizontal surface published in the TMY3 data. Using this method, peak solar gains
can be estimated by selecting the hour with the greatest solar radiation on a horizontal
surface from a WeaTran output file of 12 24-hour Day Types.

Example

For peak cooling load calculations, find solar radiation on horizontal, east, south, west
and north exposures for Sacramento California using the TMY/WeaTran method.

Using TMY3 data for Sacramento California, WeaTran selects a representative 24-hour
period for each month, and calculates hourly solar radiation on east, south, west and
north exposures from the solar radiation on a horizontal surface, and publishes the data
in Sacramento_CA_dt_us.txt.

The peak solar radiation on a horizontal surface in this file is 319 Btu/ft
2
-hr and occurred
on June 24 at 12:00. The column names and record is shown below.

Mo Dy Yr Hr Ta(F) Sol-H(Btu/ft2hr) Sol-E(Btu/ft2hr) Sol-S(Btu/ft2hr) Sol-W(Btu/ft2hr) Sol-N(Btu/ft2hr) w(lbw/lba)
06 24 1995 12 80.96 319 91 123 44 44 0.0086

Thus, peak solar radiation for design purposes can be estimated as:

Horizontal: 319 Btu/hr-ft
2

East: 91 Btu/hr-ft
2

South: 123 Btu/hr-ft
2

West: 44 Btu/hr-ft
2

North: 44 Btu/hr-ft
2


5
Ground Temperature
In many locations, annual minimum and maximum ambient temperatures occur about
1.5 months after the winter and summer solstices. Thus, February 1 and August 1 are
good dates on which to calculate effective ground temperatures for peak heating and
cooling load calculations. A good estimate of effective ground temperature on these
dates for load calculations can be derived from TMY3 data and WeaTran 12 24-hour
Day Types data.

Example

For peak heating and cooling load calculations, find effective ground temperature for
Sacramento California using the TMY/WeaTran method.

Using TMY3 data for Sacramento California, WeaTran selects a representative 24-hour
period for each month and publishes the data in Sacramento_CA_dt_us.txt.

Effective ground temperature is found using the following formula:

Tg = (1.7 Toa,yr + 1.0 Toa,3mo) / 2.7

From Sacramento_CA_dt_us.txt, the average annual air temperature is:

Ta,avg = 59.94 F

From Sacramento_CA_dt_us.txt, the average air temperature during November,
December and January is 47.91 F

From Sacramento_CA_dt_us.txt, the average air temperature during May, June and
July is 69.96 F.

Thus, the effective ground temperatures are:

Winter: Tg = (1.7 Toa,yr + 1.0 Toa,3mo) / 2.7 = (1.7 x 59.94 F + 1.0 47.91) / 2.7
Winter: Tg = 55.48 F

Summer: Tg = (1.7 Toa,yr + 1.0 Toa,3mo) / 2.7 = (1.7 x 59.94 F + 1.0 69.96) / 2.7
Summer: Tg = 63.66F