LOAD ESTIMATING, LEVEL 1: FUNDMENTALS

External Space Loads

Earlier, when load components were first presented in Figure 1, external space loads were
shown to include everything that directly caused the room temperature to vary, either above (heat
gain), or below (heat loss) the set point. These loads can be further broken down into three sub-
groups:
Weather-Related –
made up of predomi-
nantly solar gain
through glass, along
with solar and trans-
mission gains through
walls and roof.
Infiltration-Related –
not directly weather-
related, though outside
wind speed affects the
amount of airflow Figure 13
through the exterior External Space Load Components
envelope of the build-
ing. Infiltration (and exfiltration) occurs through any opening in the building envelope,
whether it is planned like a window, door or HVAC unit sleeve, or unplanned gaps due to
poor construction or building component deterioration.
Adjacent-Space Related – made up of heat transfer across any interior partition with a tem-
perature differential across the material assembly. Traditionally these have been thought of
as walls, but horizontal assemblies that separate the floors in a building often have the re-
quired temperature differential to cause heat transfer.
These heat gains and losses, which cause the space temperature to vary from set point, are the
same no matter what kind of system is used, whether it is a window unit or a VAV terminal. Later
in this TDP we will see that the system chosen will impact the load.

As had been discussed, a temperature difference ( t) is needed for heat to flow. So, some
way to determine the peak or extreme outside air temperatures, along with the inside design tem-
peratures, is needed to calculate the maximum heat flows through the building exterior envelope.
The load estimating methods also need to calculate heat flow over time, so a means of determin-
ing a daily profile of hourly temperatures is needed.

Climatic Design Conditions

The designer is concerned about both cooling and The inside design temperatures
heating; so two groups of climatic design data are
needed. The most current ASHRAE Handbook of Fun- are the comfort design conditions;
damentals is the best source of outside weather data for generally 74 to 78˚ F db for cooling
design conditions across the globe. Tables are available and 70 to 74˚ F db for heating.
for the United States, Canada, and other world loca-
tions.

Load Estimating
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