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Procedia Engineering 00 (2017) 000–000
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ScienceDirect
Procedia Engineering 205 (2017) 1115–1122

10th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, ISHVAC2017, 19-
22 October 2017, Jinan, China

Development of a cooling-load calculator for the Mexican

conditions of climate, construction and occupancy
Ivan Oropeza-Pereza, *
a
a
Department of Architecture, Universidad de las Americas Puebla, Ex Hacienda Santa Catarina Martir 72810 San Andres Cholula, Mexico

Abstract

The objective of this document is to develop a cooling-load calculator program in function of the indoor air temperature suitable
for the climate and occupancy conditions of Mexico as well as the main characteristics of its building designs. The cooling load
calculator is developed from the building heat balance. Thus, the cooling demand is determined depending on the zone volume and
the comfort temperature set-point for each case study. As the indoor temperature was determined by using EnergyPlus the proposed
forward step is to develop a program in MatLab that calculates the temperature with the correspondent gains and losses due to the
various heat flow paths that occur in the building heat balance such as through the envelope, internal heat gains and heat exchange
between the indoor and the outdoor air.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
© 2017 The Authors.
Peer-review Published by
under responsibility ofElsevier Ltd. committee of the 10th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air
the scientific
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and
Conditioning.
Air Conditioning.
Keywords: Building heat balance; Temperature set-point; Climate conditions; Occupancy; Building design.

1. Introduction

The climate change and the energy transition are global issues that have been gaining notoriety in the last years due
to their strategic role in the development of the humanity [1]. Different studies show that there is a direct relationship
between both challenges because the energy consumption, which in several countries is mostly fossil-fuel based,
implies greenhouse gases emissions therefore it increases the so-called global warming.

*
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +52-222-229-3253; fax: +52-222-229-0000
E-mail address: ivan.oropeza@udlap.mx

1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning.

1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and
Air Conditioning.
10.1016/j.proeng.2017.10.180
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2 Ivan Oropeza-Perez / Procedia Engineering 00 (2017) 000–000

Nomenclature

ρ.Cp.V.dT/dt Heat boosted or lost during a certain period of time (W)

ρ Air density (kg/m3)
ADAC Annual energy consumption (Wh)
COP Coefficient of performance (dimensionless)
Cp Air specific heat (kJ/kg.K)
DAC Energy consumption (Wh)
EAC Heat flux of thermal load due to AC (W)
EER Energy efficiency ratio (dimensionless)
Econv Heat flux of heat loss/gain trough the envelope (W)
Eint Heat flux of internal heat gains (W)
Event Heat flux of heat exchange between the internal and external air (W)
Mass Mass of the air (kg)
Qtotal Sum of all the heat fluxes (W)
Tcomfort Indoor temperature of comfort (C)
Tindoor Actual indoor temperature (C)
T1 Indoor temperature at time = 0 seconds (C)
T2 Indoor temperature at time = 3600 seconds (C)
V Air volume (m3)

Buildings are main actors in these challenges that the human being is facing. It is estimated that 40% out of the
total energy consumption is because of buildings, either directly or indirectly, hence its influence on the climate change
is considerable.
One of the most consuming activities within the building is the regarding the conditioning of the space, understood
as the usage of an appliance designed for expelling heat (cooling) or adding heat (heating) with the purpose of
achieving a certain temperature of comfort. These appliances are generally high consumers of energy and other
resources. Moreover, many of them have emissions of other gases such as the CFC (chlorofluorocarbons) that affect
the ozone layer in the atmosphere. This kind of gases are frequently found in the air-conditioning (AC) systems for
cooling.
Even though, in many climate conditions the usage of AC and/or heating systems is indispensable in order to reach
habitability within the building. Otherwise, health and psychological issues might happen on the occupants. This is
the case of countries with hot tropical climate such as Mexico. In several regions of this country the use of AC is a
common practice that implies high consumption of energy to achieve thermal comfort. For instance, in 2016 it was
estimated that 6.9 million of Mexican dwellings had AC system, consuming 11.8 TWh in this year [2].
Nevertheless, it is considered that a proper estimation of the thermal load necessary to expel the heat from a built
space could imply a considerable reduction of the energy consumption therefore this can help in the decrease of
greenhouse gases, also considering that the electricity generation in this country is mostly fossil-fuel based.

2. Method

1.1 Simulation modelling in EnergyPlus

The documents begins with the simulation model developed in EnergyPlus v.8.5.0 [3] in order to calculate the
hourly indoor temperatures of the Mexican buildings. Two models were taken into account considering the two most
common types of dwelling regarding size and geometry presented in the Mexican residential sector (see Fig.1).
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Fig. 1. Schemes of the most common types of dwellings in Mexico used in the EnergyPlus model.

The characteristics of design of the building, climate conditions and occupants’ behavior, proper for Mexico, are
shown in Table 1. These features have already been analyzed and presented by [4] and [5]. In the studies it was found
that the materials of construction, number of occupants, schedules and geometry vary according to the climatic region.
The variations are, however, too small therefore they can considered as uniform as the shown in Table 1.
The climate data, with an .epw extension, are taken directly from the webpage of EnergyPlus, where for Mexico
there are three cities: Mexico City, Acapulco and Veracruz. It is worthy to mention that Acapulco and Veracruz are
considered as cities with warm climate hence they are suitable for the study presented here [6].

Table 1– Characteristics of the residential buildings in Mexico [6,7].

Building design
Material wall Brick, 0.871 W/m-K
Material roof Concrete, 1.74 W/m-K
Built area Small, 45 m2 y medium, 100 m2
Climatic conditions
Mexico city MEX_Mexico.City.766790_IWEC.epw
Acapulco MEX_Acapulco.768056_IWEC.epw
Veracruz MEX_Veracruz.766910_IWEC.epw
Occupants’ behavior
Schedule 21:00-8:00 hrs., 100%, 8:00-21:00, 30%
Number of occupants 3 to 5 persons
Internal heat gains 1000 W

With these features the hourly indoor temperatures are determined with the simulations using EnergyPlus.

2.1. Calculation of the thermal and electrical load

In order to determine the thermal load needed to achieve a certain temperature of comfort according to the indoor
air temperature, the thermal balance of the building is utilized. Considering that the air is well-mixed in a specific
thermal zone [8]:

dT
ρ ⋅ c p ⋅V ⋅ = {E Int + E Conv + EVent + E AC } = Qtotal (1)
dt
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The sum of all the heat fluxes can be equivalent to a total flux, Qtotal, which can be positive, negative or zero. If it
is considered that Qtotal is the amount of heat that goes in or goes out, and that the air density multiplied by the air
volume is the air mass, Eq. 1 could be simplified:

dT
mass ⋅ c p ⋅ = Qtotal (2)
dt

If Eq. 2 is solved with respect to an indoor temperatures difference from T1 to T2 in a period of time of one hour
(3600 seconds), Eq. 2 is changed as follows:

T2 Qtotal 3600

T1
dT =
mass ⋅ c p 
0
dt (3)

Solving the integrals the result is the following:

Qtotal
T2 − T1 = ⋅ 3600 (4)
mass ⋅ c p

For determining the value of the total heat flux, Qtotal, necessary to reach a temperature of comfort having an indoor
temperature Eq. 4 is solved:

(Tindoor − Tconfort ) ⋅ mass ⋅ c p

Qtotal = (5)
3600
For this work the hourly indoor temperatures calculated by EnergyPlus are considered, varying the desire
temperature of comfort and thereby calculating the heat flux (heat loss) needed to achieve this comfort.
For calculating the energy consumption (DAC) the energy efficiency ratio (EER) of the AC system is taken account
of [9]:

Qtotal
EER = 3.412 ⋅ COP = 3.412 ⋅ (6)
D AC

Thus, the annual energy consumption (ADAC, in kWh) is the sum of the hours when the AC system was used
(Tindoor>Tcomfort in Eq. 5).
8760 Qtotal
ADAC =  3.412 ⋅ (7)
n =1 EER
With Eq. 5 and 7 the program that calculates the thermal and electrical load of the AC system is developed in MatLab
according to the hourly indoor temperatures and the temperature set-point (temperature of comfort).
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2.2. Development of the simulation model in MatLab

With the 8760 values of the indoor air temperature a matrix of 1x8760 is created in MatLab [10] which calculates
for every row the Qtotal (in W) that have to be expelled and its involved energy in order to reach the temperature set-
point.

Fig.2 Program in MatLab that calculates the thermal load (runsum_cooling) and electric load (Qcooling) necessary to achieve a certain
temperature of comfort (Tsetpoint_c)

The program was developed only for calculating the loads for cooling. For heating systems it is considered that it
does not exist, to the best of our knowledge, an extensive use of these systems amongst the Mexicans. Moreover, the
coefficient of performance (COP) of the heating systems in Mexican is not available.

3. Results analysis

With the developed model different scenarios are generated with the purpose of knowing the behavior of the energy
consumption of the AC systems.

3.1. Variation of the climatic conditions

With the program it is compared the thermal load and electric load (energy consumption) of a dwelling with the
same characteristics of design and occupants’ behavior, changing the three cities where EnergyPlus has climate data.
An EER of 4.1 and a temperature set-point of 23°C are considered. With this, Fig 3. Can be constructed.
In Fig. 3 it can be appreciated that the city with the highest energy consumption is Acapulco with a consumption
of 7.2 MWh, followed by Veracruz with 5.3 MWh and Mexico City with 2.8 MWh. This figures are considered as
realistic due to the mean outdoor temperature registered of each city.

3.2. Variation of the temperature set-point

One of the most important factor to consider in the energy consumption of an AC system is the temperature set-
point. Most of these systems are controlled by a thermostat, which is controlled by the indoor air temperature that the
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user sets up. When the temperature set-point is low, the systems consume much energy. On the other hand, when the
temperature set-point is high, the consumption decreases.
Thereby, with the program, four different temperature set-points are considered for the city of Acapulco, for a high-
efficient AC system (EER 4.1). Results can be shown in Fig. 4.

Fig.3 Annual thermal load and energy consumption for AC for three different cities of Mexico.

Fig.4 Annual thermal load and energy consumption for four different temperature set-points for Acapulco, Mexico.

In Fig. 4 it is seen that the higher is the temperature set-point, the lower is the energy consumption. With a
temperature set-point of 17°C (a very common practice in real life), the energy consumption is 11.6 MWh, 2.3 times
higher than the consumption with a set-point of 26°C (5 MWh).
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3.3. Variation of the temperature set-point

A calculation with a case in Acapulco, with a temperature set-point of 23°C, varying the EER value is carried out.
Results can be seen in Fig. 5.

Fig.5 Annual thermal load and energy consumption for four different EER for Acapulco, Mexico.

In Fig. 5 is shown that the thermal load is the same for the four cases. The energy consumption is varying tough.
For the least efficient EER, the consumption is 9.5 MWh, whereas for the highest efficient EER the consumption is
6.5 MWh, 32% less energy.
From Fig. 3, 4 & 5 one can conclude that the most perceptible change was given by the climate conditions.
Nevertheless, as this characteristic cannot be controlled, the increase in the temperature set-point is the most important
factor to take into account. By increasing the thermostat, the energy consumption can be less than the half than a
consumption with a low temperature set-point (around 16-17°C). On the other hand, by utilizing high-efficient AC
systems, the saving is less considerable (around 70% of a conventional consumption).

4. Conclusions

The first version of a simulation modelling that calculates the thermal load to be expelled on a certain air zone for
achieving thermal comfort for the climatic conditions, building design and occupancy suitable for Mexico is developed.
Results show that the thermal load and energy consumption necessary to reach thermal comfort depend on different
factors. The climatic conditions are the most important factors. Nonetheless, the occupants’ behavior, by having a
proper performance of the AC system, can have a deep influence on the energy saving by controlling the temperature
set-point of the system.
As final comment, it is considered for a future work the development of an own program which calculates the heat
fluxes of internal heat gains, through the envelope and the exchange between the outdoor and indoor. With this it is
expected that the determination of the energy consumption and thermal comfort be more accurate and suitable for the
Mexican conditions, where there are 6.9 million of dwellings with AC that annually consume over 11.8 TWh. Hence,
the potential of energy saving and greenhouse gases mitigation have a large opportunity.

References

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[2] Oropeza-Perez I. Comparative economic assessment of the energy performance of air-conditioning within the Mexican residential sector. Energy
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