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Chapter Five
5. load calculations

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 Outline
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1. Load calculations – Solar heat gain – Heat transfer

through building structures

2. Internal heat gains – Occupancy, Lighting and

Appliances load, Process load, System heat gains and

Cooling loads.
3. Effective Sensible Heat Factor

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 1. Load calculations
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Need to calculate cooling & heating load

By carrying out cooling and heating load calculations

one can estimate the capacity that will be required for

various air conditioning equipment.
For carrying out load calculations it is essential to have

knowledge of various energy transfers that take place

across the conditioned space.

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 Indoor and outdoor conditions
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 To estimate the required cooling or heating capacities, one has to

have information about design indoor and outdoor conditions,

Specifications of the building, Specifications of the conditioned

space (such as the occupancy, activity level, various appliances and

equipment used etc.) and any special requirements of the particular

application.

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 Indoor Conditions
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 The required inside design conditions depend on the intended use of the

building.
 For comfort applications, the required indoor conditions are fixed by the

criterion of thermal comfort (that condition of mind which expresses

satisfaction with the thermal environment )
 Thermal comfort is affected by activity, clothing, air DBT, RH, air velocity

and surrounding temperature

 For industrial or commercial applications the required indoor conditions

are fixed by the particular processes being performed or the products being
stored. 03/14/2025
 Outdoor conditions
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 Outdoor conditions are chosen based on design dry bulb and

coincident wet bulb temperatures for peak summer or winter

months for cooling and heating load calculations, respectively.
Effective temperature (ET):
 combines the effects of dry bulb temperature and air humidity

into a single factor

 defined as the temperature of the environment at 50% RH

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The design outside conditions also depend on the following factors:

a) Type of the structure, i.e. Whether it is of heavy construction,
medium or light
b) Insulation characteristics of the building
c) Area of glass or other transparent surfaces
d) Type of usage
e) Nature of occupancy (action of occupying the space)
f) Daily range (difference between maximum and minimum
temperatures in a given day) 03/14/2025
 ASHRAE comfort chart for a sedentary
person
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•Based on the chart ASHARE makes the following recommendations

Inside design conditions for Winter: Inside design conditions for Summer:
T between 20.0 to 23.5 C at a RH of 60%
op o
Top between 22.5 to 26.0oC at a RH of 60%
Top between 20.5 to 24.5oC at a DPT of 2oC
Top between 23.5 to 27.0oC at a DPT of 2oC
ASHRAE 55 – 2004 Comfort Zone
• Air temperature –Typically 22-26 C
• Air velocity – 0.25 m/s
• Relative humidity – 30-70 % 03/14/2025
 Heating versus cooling load calculations
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Heating load calculations are carried out to estimate the

heat loss from the building in winter so as to arrive at
required heating capacities of various AC equipment.
Cooling load calculation is carried to estimate the heat
gained by the building in summer, and to estimate the
capacity that will be required by various AC equipment.
During winter months the peak heating load occurs before
sunrise and the outdoor conditions do not vary
significantly throughout the winter season.

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Cont’d
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The heat load calculations are carried out assuming

I. Steady state conditions (no solar radiation and steady

outdoor conditions) and

II. neglecting internal heat sources

But for estimating cooling loads, one has to consider the

unsteady state processes, as the peak cooling load occurs

during the day time and the outside conditions also vary
significantly throughout the day due to solar radiation
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 Solar radiation
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 For any building there exists a balance point at which the solar
radiation (Qsolar) and internal heat generation rate (Qint) exactly
balance the heat losses from the building. i.e.

UA =product of overall heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer area of the building
Tin =required indoor temperature
Tout =outdoor temperature
•From the above equation, the outside temperature at balanced condition (T out,bal)

•Hence (outdoor temperature is greater) cooling is needed.

heating is needed
no need of heating or cooling
•For residential buildings (with fewer internal heat sources), the balanced outdoor temperature may vary
from 10 to 18oC
•For commercial buildings with large internal loads and relatively smaller heat transfer areas, the
balanced outdoor temperature can be as low as 2oC,
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Example
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A building has a U-value of 0.5 W/m2.K and a total exposed surface

area of 384 m2. The building is subjected to an external load (only
sensible) of 2 kW and an internal load of 1.2 kW (sensible). If the
required internal temperature is 25oC.
 State whether a cooling system is required or a heating system is

required when the external temperature is 3oC.

 How the results will change, if the U-value of the building is

reduced to 0.36 W/m.K?

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 Cooling Load
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It is the thermal energy that must be removed from the space in

order to maintain the desired comfort conditions

HVAC systems are used to maintain thermal conditions in comfort

range.
The purpose of load calculation is to determine the size of the air

conditioning and refrigeration equipment required to maintain the

inside design conditions
 The heat gain may be from solar radiation and/or internal gains

such as people, lights and business machines.

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 Cooling load calculations methods
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 load calculations involve a systematic and stepwise procedure that

takes into account all the relevant building energy flows

 variety of methods ranging from simple rules-of-thumb to complex

Transfer Function Methods are used in practice to arrive at the

building loads
 More accurate load estimation methods involve a combination of

analytical methods and empirical results obtained from actual data

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Con’t…. 16

These methods include:

 Cooling Load Temperature Difference (CLTD/CLF) &

 Solar Heat Gain Factor (SHGF)

 Transfer Function Method (TFM)

These are used large commercial or institutional buildings b/c

expensive and time consuming
Hence ASHRAE suggests different methods based on type
applications
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 Space Characteristics for cooling load
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 Orientation
 Size and shape
 Construction material
 Windows, doors, openings
 Surrounding conditions
 Ceiling
 Occupants (activity, number, duration)
 Appliances (power, usage)
 Air leakage (infiltration or exfiltration)
 Lighting (W/m2)

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 Components of cooling load for AC system
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1. Sensible heat gain:

 Heat received from solar radiation: through glasses, windows, doors, or walls

 Heat flow to rooms due to temp difference b/n inside and out side, by

conduction through envelops (exterior walls, floors, ceiling, doors, windows

and by infiltration air) called external load.
 Heat conducted through interior partitions from rooms in the same buildings

w/h are not conditioned

 Heat given off by lights, monitors, machineries, cooking operations,

industrial processes and heat gained from occupants are called internal
loads. 03/14/2025
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2. Latent heat gain (addition of water vapor to space)

 Heat gained due to moisture in outside by infiltration
 Heat gained due to condensation of moisture from occupants
 Heat gained from processes like cooking food
 Heat gained due to moisture passing directly in to the
conditioned space
 the total heat load to be removed by AC is the sum of sensible
and latent heat loads

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Components of Cooling Load

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 Cooling Load Components
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roof

lights partition
people equipment
infiltration wall
glass solar

glass
conduction

exterior
wall
floor
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 Sensible and Latent Gains
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cooling load components sensible latent
load load
conduction through roof, walls, windows,
and skylights
solar radiation through windows, skylights
conduction through ceiling, interior
partition walls, and floor
people
lights
equipment/appliances
infiltration
ventilation
system heat gains

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 Assumptions behind design cooling load
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1. Design outside conditions are selected from a long-term

statistical database
2. The load on the building due to solar radiation is estimated for
clear sky conditions
3. The building occupancy is assumed to be at full design capacity
4. All building equipment and appliances are considered to be
operating at a reasonably representative capacity.

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 Cont…
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• In some buildings it may be possible to maintain a comfortable

environment with mechanical ventilation.
• Since air conditioning is both expensive to install and maintain, it
can be reduced by careful building design and by utilising methods
such as:
o window blinds or shading methods
o heat reflecting glass
o Open able windows
o higher ceilings
o smaller windows (glasses) on solar facing direction
o Orientation of building
o alternative lighting schemes
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Cooling Load Reduction Techniques

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 Cooling load Estimation
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1.Estimation of External Loads

a) Heat transfer through opaque surfaces : sensible heat transfer
through opaque or envelopes surfaces such as walls, roof, floor,
doors etc
CLTD is the cooling load temperature difference, For sunlight
surfaces, it is to be obtained from the CLTD tables
For surfaces which are not sunlight ,CLTD value is simply equal
to the difference between the design outdoor and indoor dry bulb
temperatures, Tout-Tin

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 Con’t…
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b) Heat transfer through fenestration (orientation)

Where :
Aunshaded = the area exposed to solar radiation,
SHGFmax = the maximum Solar Heat Gain Factor
SC = Shading Coefficient, respectively and
CLF = Cooling Load Factor w/h can be given in table

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Cooling Load Factor (CLF) for glass with interior shading and
located in north latitudes (ASHRAE)
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 Estimation of external loads…..
c) Heat transfer due to infiltration: consists of both sensible as
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well as latent components w/h are given by

where ACH is the number of air changes per hour and V is the gross volume of
the conditioned space in m3. Normally the ACH value varies from 0.5 ACH for
tight and well-sealed buildings to about 2.0 for loose and poorly sealed buildings
or
where A is the effective leakage area of the cracks, C
is a flow coefficient,0.4 ≤ n ≤ 1.0, ΔP= (Po-Pi)
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 d) Miscellaneous external loads

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If the cooling coil has a positive by-pass factor (BPF > 0), then,
some amount of ventilation air directly enters the conditioned
space, in which case it becomes a part of the building cooling load.
In this case
in the following equation can be replaced by
BPF

Where
is the ventilation rate and BPF is the by-pass factor of the cooling
coil.

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 2. Estimation of internal loads
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The internal loads consist of load

due to occupants,

due to lighting,

due to equipment and appliances and

due to products stored or

processes being performed in the conditioned space.

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 a) Load due to occupants
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 consists of both sensible and latent heat components

Total heat gain, sensible heat gain fraction from occupants

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 b) Load due to lighting:
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The usage factor accounts for any lamps that are installed but are
not switched on at the time at which load calculations are
performed.
The ballast factor takes into account the load imposed by ballasts
used in fluorescent lights. A typical ballast factor value of 1.25 is
taken for fluorescent lights, while it is equal to 1.0 for incandescent
lamps.
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 c) Internal loads due to equipment & appliances:
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 May add both sensible as well as latent loads to the conditioned

space

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d)Load on the system due to ventilated air & leakage
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 sensible and latent loads due to ventilation, leakage losses in the
return air ducts and heat added due to return air fan should be
taken in to account to calculate cooling capacity (if any)

is the latent heat of vaporization of water &

X is the by-pass factor

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 Cooling capacity of the system
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 Total sensible load on the coil

 Total latent load on the coil

 Required cooling capacity

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NB: 37

 While determining the cooling capacity a suitable safety

factor is normally used in the end to account for uncertainties

in occupants, equipment, external infiltration, external
conditions etc.

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 Heating load calculations
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Assumptions
 steady state conditions for estimating the building heating loads

 the internal heat sources are neglected

Then the procedure for heating load calculations becomes fairly

simple
One has to estimate only the sensible and latent heat losses from
the building walls, roof, ground, windows, doors, due to
infiltration and ventilation.
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Example 2
An air conditioned room that stands on a well ventilated basement
measures 3 m wide, 3 m high and 6 m deep. One of the two 3 m walls
faces west and contains a double glazed glass window of size 1.5 m by
1.5 m, mounted flush with the wall with no external shading. There are
no heat gains through the walls other than the one facing west.
From the information given below Calculate
a. Sensible heat gain, on the room
b. Latent heat gain on the room
c. total heat gain on the room,
d. room sensible heat factor and
e. The required cooling capacity

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Thank You….!!!

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