Basic of HVAC

Lecture 12

Heating Load Calculations

 Introduction
Heating loads are the thermal energy that must be supplied to the interior of a
building in order to maintain the desired comfort conditions. There are two
kinds of heat losses;
(1) the heat transmitted through the walls, ceiling, floor, glass, or other
surfaces, and
(2) the heat required to warm outdoor air entering the space.
The actual heat loss problem is transient because the outdoor temperature, wind
velocity, and sunlight are constantly changing, but during the coldest months,
however, sustained periods of very cold, cloudy, and stormy weather with
relatively small variations in outdoor temperature may occur. In this situation,
heat loss from the space will be relatively constant and maximum. Therefore,
for design purposes, the heat loss is usually estimated for steady-state heat
transfer for some reasonable design temperature.
Heat loss (gain) calculations by the (BTU) or (kW) method is an
accurate process of determining the heat transmission through building
materials. The established (U) factors of combinations of building
materials gives a simple corrected method of determining the loss of heat
from a building.
With the cost of material continually rising, accurate heat loss is a must.
Systems can be designed to do the job efficiently without the long-used
safety factor. The safety factor is only a "cost more" factor.
Conductivity for Plan Wall and Steady State
Convection heat transfer
To determine how much heat is lost through the walls, we have "U" factors for
different types of construction. A "U" factor tells us how many (kW's) are
transmitted to the colder (hotter) outside for one square meter of area with a
difference of one degree between the outside surface and inside surface of the
walls, windows, roofs or ceilings.

Definitions

1. "U" – Coefficient of heat transmission (overall): The amount of heat

transmitted from air to air per square meter of the wall, roof, or ceiling for a
difference in temperature of one degree centigrade between the air on the
inside and outside (winter) of the wall, floor, roof or ceiling.
2. "K" – Conductivity: The amount of heat (W) transmitted through one square
meter of a homogeneous material one meter thick for a difference in
temperature of one degree centigrade between two surfaces of the material.
3. "C" – Conductance: The amount of heat (W) transmitted from surface to
surface through one square meter of material or construction for a difference in
temperature of one degree centigrade between the two surfaces. This is not per
meter or centimeter of thickness, but for thickness shown.

4. "fo" – Outside film coefficient: The outside combined surface loss due to
radiation and convection, with a 5 or 10 km/h (or more) wind velocity. The
amount of heat (W) for one square meter of surface for a temperature
difference of one degree centigrade(W/m2.oC).
5. "fi" – Inside film coefficient: The combined inside surface loss due to
radiation and convection, with still air (W/m2.oC).

6. "a"– Thermal conductance of an air space: The amount of heat (W)

transmitted through one square meter of surface for a difference in
temperature of one degree centigrade (W/m2.oC).
7. "R" – This is the reciprocal of conductivity and conductance, or the
overall heat transfer coefficient "U".
The total resistance "R" to heat flow through a wall is equal numerically to
the sum of the resistance in series.
Thermo-physical properties of some common building and insulating materials (C.P. Arora)
Example:
A wall consist of 10 cm face brick with 15 cm concrete and 1.3 cm cement
plaster. The outdoor temperature is -7oC, and the wind velocity is 24 km/h,
while the indoor space temperature is 25oC. Calculate:
(a) Thermal resistance of the wall (b) Overall heat transfer coefficient (c ) Rate
of heat transfer through the wall , and (d) Rate of heat transfer when neglect the
thermal resistance of the air layers.
Solution:
= 0.332 m2.oC/W
 = 3.012 W/ m2.oC

= 96.348 W/ m2

(d) Rate of heat transfer when neglect the thermal resistance of the air
layers

= 175.82 W/ m2
Example:
Door made of wood sheet and contains a glass in the middle, which represent
80% of the door area. The thickness of the door is 40 mm and the room
temperature is 22oC, while the outdoor temperature is 5oC. Determine the rate
of heat loss from the room, if the dimensions of the door are 2 m x 1 m.
Solution:
Rate of heat transfer through the wood of the door:

= 16.9 W

Rate of heat transfer through the glass:

= 170 W

Then the total heat loss through the door:

= 186.9 W
The Temperature of the Surface of the Wall

It is important to know that the inside and outside air temperature is not equal
to wall surface temperature. So, in case when the temperature of inside wall
surface reaches or below the dew point of indoor space temperature, it will
cause to condensate the water vapor and may be defect this wall (especially
in the winter). It is important to make a chick about this point.
Example:
An external wall consist of three layers, layer A (X= 5 cm, K= 0.4 W/m.K),
layer B (X= 24 cm, K= 0.6 W/m.K), layer C (X= 5 cm, K= 0.8 W/m.K). If
the indoor space condition is 20oC DBT and 14oC WBT, and the outdoor
temperature is -15oC. Chick is the vapor condensate on the inner surface of
the wall or not?
Solution:
We must find the temperature of the inner surface (Tw) and compare it with
the dew point of the air space, which is 10.0oC
 = 14.3oC

The inner surface temperature is greater than the dew point, so the vapor
will not condense.
Example:
A wall was constructed of hollow concrete blocks (C = 5.11 W/m2.oC). The
indoor condition is 20oC DBT and 14oC WBT, when the outdoor air
temperature is -15oC and the wind velocity is 24 km/h in winter. Determine
the inner surface temperature, and show if the vapor condenses on it or no.
Solution:
The dew point for the indoor air from the psychrometric chart is = 10.0oC

Ts = 7.8oC The inner surface temperature is lower than the dew point, so
the vapor will condense.
 Infiltration
All structures have some air leakage or infiltration. This means a heat loss
because the cold dry outdoor air must be heated to the inside design
temperature and moisture must be added to increase the humidity to the design
value. The heat required to increase the temperature is given by
Infiltration is usually estimated on the basis of volume flow rate at outdoor
conditions. Then equation 5.6 become:
The latent heat required to humidify the air is given by

More than one method is used in estimating air infiltration in building

structures.
1. Air Change Method
2. Crack Method
 Air Change Method
Experience and judgment are required to obtain satisfactory results with this
method. Experienced engineers will often simply make an assumption of the
number of air changes per hour (ACH) that a building will experience based
on their appraisal of the building type, construction, and use. The range will
usually be from 0.5 ACH (very low) to 2.0 ACH (very high). This approach
is usually satisfactory for design load calculation but not recommended for
the beginner.
In practice, the following values of air changes per hour can be used with
reasonable precision for rooms with the extent of windows and external
doors given.

No windows or exterior doors 0.5

Exterior doors or windows on one side 1
Exterior doors or windows on two sides 1.5
Exterior doors or windows on three sides 2
Entrance halls 2
 Crack Method
The flow (leak) through an opening is proportional to the area of the cracks,
the type of the cracks, and the pressure difference across the crack.

Where
A: effective leak area of the cracks
C: flow coefficient, which depends on the type of crack and the nature of
the flow in the crack.
ΔP: outside – inside pressure difference (Po – Pi)
N: Exponent that depends on the nature of the flow in the crack 0.4< n <1.0.
The following table gives the leakage rates through cracks in doors on the
windward side for different wind velocities and different door constructions.
Example:
Find the sensible heat loss due to infiltration outdoor air at -6oC into a heated
house through an aluminum window (2 m x 1.2 m), which has double
swinging parts the width of each is 0.5 m, and a fixed glass in the middle. The
temperature of the air inside the house is 22oC.
Solution: 1 liters/second = 0.001 cubic meters/second
Crack length = 2[(1.2 + 0.5) x2] = 6.8 m
ASHRAE Handbook, 1981 gives value of 0.77 (l/s. m) infiltration air
through aluminum windows when the air velocity is 40 km/h.
V. = (0.77/1000) x 6.8 = 0.00524 m3/s
And from equation 5.7
qs = 1.22 V. (Ti – To) = 1.22 (0.00524)(22 + 6) = 0.179 kW.
 Ventilation
The introduction of outdoor air for ventilation of conditional spaces is necessary
to dilute the odors given off by people, smoking and other internal air
contaminates. The amount of ventilation required varies primarily with the
total number of people, the ceiling height and the number of people smoking.
People give off body odors which required a minimum of 5 cfm (2.36 l/s) per
person. When people smoke, the additional odors given off by cigarettes or
cigars requires a minimum of 15 to 25 cfm (7 – 12 l/s) per person. In special
gathering rooms with heavy smoking, 30 to 50 cfm (15 – 24 l/s) per person is
recommended.

Cfm: Cubic Feet Per Minute

1 Cubic foot per minute (cfm) is equal to 0.47194745 liter per second (L/s).
The Tables in the next page used to determine the minimum and
recommended ventilation air quantity for several applications.
The sensible and latent heating loads from ventilation air can be estimated by
the following equations
Table 33-3:Typical outdoor air requirements for ventilation
Example:
An auditorium seats 1000 people. The space design conditions are 21oC and
40% RH, and outdoor design conditions 5oC DBT and 60% RH. What is the
heating load due to ventilation.
Solution:
From table 4.8 the minimum ventilation air per person to be 5.5 l/s
Total ventilation air = 5.5 x 1000 = 5500 l/s = 5.5 m3/s
qs = (V./v) Cp (Ti – To) = 1.22 V. (Ti – To) = 1.22 (5.5)(21 – 5)= 107.36 kW
Wi = 0.0061 kg/kg dry air , Wo= 0.0034 kg/kg dry air [ from the
psychrometric chart at the inner and outer design conditions]
qL = (V./v) (Wi – Wo) hfg = 3010 V. (Wi – Wo)
= 3010 (5.5)(0.0061 – 0.0034) = 44.7 kW
Then the total heating load due to ventilation
Qv = 107.36 + 44.7 = 152.06 kW
Example
A large air-conditioned building with a total internal volume of 1,00,000
m3 is maintained at 25oC (DBT) and 50% RH, while the outside
conditions are 35oC and 45% RH. It has a design occupancy of 10,000
people, all non-smoking. The infiltration rate through the building is
equal to 1.0 ACH. Estimate the heat transfer rate due to ventilation
and infiltration. Assume the barometric pressure to be 1 atm.
 Heat Losses from Air Ducts
The losses of a duct system can be considerable when the ducts are not in the
conditioned space. Proper insulation will reduce these losses but cannot
completely eliminate them. The losses may be estimated using the following
relation
Example:
Estimate the heat losses from 0.5 m3/s of air at 50oC round duct 8 m in length.
The duct has 25 mm (1 in) of fibrous glass insulation and the overall heat
transfer coefficient is 1.1357 W/m2.oC. The environment temperature is -10oC
and the duct diameter is 400 mm.

= 770 W= 0.77 kW
Air Required for Space Heating