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Opera House
ABOUT
3D MODEL
HVAC System
ARCHITECTURE
STRUCTURAL SYSTEM
HVAC SYSTEM Drawings/Diagrams
EVALUATION
LINKS/WORKS CITED
A 3D Section View of Sydney Opera House
Floor Plan HVAC (the harbor water is used to cool heat pump)
Calculations
Heating Load
To calculate the heating load of a building the following formula was used:
Q = A x U x TD
= A x 1/R x TD
Where:
Q = Heat Transfer Rate (BTU/hr) or (W)
U = Coefficient of thermal conductance (BTU/ F-ft2-hr)
R = Coefficient of thermal resistance (F-ft2-hr/BTU/hr
A = Surface Area through which heat flows (ft2)
TD = Change in Temperature (F)
Assumptions
Average nighttime winter temperature: Tout = 50 F
Night-time winter temperatures = June to August, i.e. 90 days.
R-value of wall material = 10 ft²-F-hr/BTU
R-value of roof material = 30 ft²-F-hr/BTU
R-value of glass = 2 ft²-F-hr/BTU
Neglect HVAC air flow and leakage
Convert this to gallons/hr 120,000 BTU/gallon
Calculate the heating cost per yea assuming $2/gallon of heating oil
Q = A*U*DT
Area (sf) R-Value U (BTU/(F.cf.hr)) DT (F) Heating
(F.cf.hr/BTU) Load (Q)
Wall 47775.0 10.0 0.1 20.0 95550.0
Roof 129333.0 30.0 0.0 20.0 86135.8
Glass 67000.0 2.0 0.5 20.0 670000.0
Total 851685.8
120000.0 BTU/gallon 7.1
2.0 $/gallon
24.0 hr/day
365.0 days/year
124392.0
Cooling Loads
Assumptions
300 BTU/hr by people
200 SF/Person
1.5 w/SF for lighting
3 w/SF for equipment
100 w/SF incident solar on horizontal surface
60 w/SF incident solar on West or East facing surface at peak time
Ton of AC = 12,000 BTU/Hr per ton
Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) is 10
Electrical Energy costs .10/KWH
Sensible Loads (qS):
qS = (No. of People) x (BTUhS/person) x (CLF)
= (3500) x (300 BTU/hr/person) x (1) = 1,050,000 BTU/hr = 307,724.7 W
Latent Load (qL):
qL = (No. of People) x (BTUhL/person)
= (3500) x (300 BTU/hr/person) = 1,050,000 BTU/hr = 307,724.7 W
Heating Load from Lighting Systems (Q):
Q = (Total floor area) x (Lighting Watts/sf)
= 129,333 sf x (1.5 W/sf) x = 194,000 W
Heating Load from Equipment (Q):
Q = (Total floor area) x (Equipment Watts/sf)
= (129,333 sf) x (3 W/sf) = 388,000 W
Heating Load from Solar Radiation (Q):
Q = (Solar radiation W/sf) x (Area) x (Shading Coefficient)x(CLF)
= (100 W/sf ) x (67,000 sf) x (1) x (1) = 6,700,000 W \
Eastern and western walls yield the same result.
Heating Load from Incident Solar Radiation on Either Side:
Q = (Solar radiation W/sf) x (East/West face area) x (CLF)
= (60 W/sf) x (95,000 sf) x (1) = 5,700,000 W
Total heating load = 307,724.7 + 307,724.7 + 194,000 + 388,000 + 6,700,000 +
11,400,000 = 19,297,449 W or 65,845,629 BTU/hr
Total heating load (tons of AC) = (65,845,629 BTU/hr) / (12,000 BTU/hr/ton)
§ = 5487 tons of AC
Heating load (W) = (65,845,629 BTU/hr) / 10 (SEER*) = 6,584,562 W
* The seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) is a standard measure of air-
conditioning during an typical annual cooling season. Specifically, it is the system’s
total cooling output (BTU) divided by the total electric energy input (W-hr). The higher
the unit's SEER rating the more energy efficient it is.
Daily heat load = (65,845,629 BTU/hr) x (8 hr) = 526,765,032 BTU
Seasonal Cost:
(6,584,562 watts) x (1 kW/1000 W) x (8 hours/day) x (30 days/month) x (3
months/season) x (.10/kWh) = $474,088.5/season
Annual Cost: (474,088.5 $/season) x (4 seasons/yr) = 1,896,354 $/yr
Discussion
More than one million people travel from different parts of the world to visit Sydney
Opera House. It is definitely one of the most innovative and distinctive buildings of the
20th Century. It is also one of the most famous performing arts venues in the world.
The values for the average temperatures in winter and summer were found to be 50 F
and 70 F, respectively. A Danish firm called Steensen Varming was responsible for
designing new air-conditioning plant, supplying over 600,000 cubic feet per minute
(cfm), using the innovative idea of harnessing the harbor water to create a water-cooled
heat system that is still in operation today. No cooling towers are used in this building;
almost all of the equipment is located in the mechanical room.
I first read about Sydney and how it has one of the most vulnerable climates
in the world. Knowing that it delivers 1,000,000 cfm through huge ducting, I
knew the cooling cost would be higher than the heating cost, but I did not know
that there is going to be a huge difference in the magnitude of the
heating( 851,685.8 BTU/hr ) and cooling (65,845,629 BTU/hr) loads. I read that
they use small air-conditioners when the weather is not too hot, and use the
huge chillers only when they need them. I thought using this technique would
reduce the heating load. Of course, neglect infiltration and exfiltration for this
assignment. Also, I made some assumptions regarding the areas of the roof,
windows and doors. So the real heating load would be higher the one I
calculated. One of the most challenging aspects of this assignment was finding
the cooling loads of the building. This is because the complexibility of the
structure. In other words, it was hard to tell where the wind and sunshine come
from.
Questions
1. What are the relative magnitudes of the total hourly heating and cooling loads?
Total hourly heating load = 851,685.8 BTU/hr
Total hourly cooling load = 65,845,629 BTU/hr
2. What are the relative costs of heating and cooling the building?
Heating cost = 124,392 $/yr
Cooling cost = 1,896,354 $/yr
3. Would this be an easy or a difficult building for which to develop the HVAC
calculations (assuming you'd already completed the senior year HVAC courses)? Why?
The HVAC system of this building was very unique, yet challenging. The mechanical
equipment for the AC can be found within the podium. The roof of this building is very
complex shape, which makes it really difficult to compute the HVAC calculations for
the building. Even the air conditioning program designed in Utzon’s time could not
service the major and miner halls simultaneously. The government therefore decided to
double the capacity to cover all the different parts of this building.
