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Cooling Load Estimation for a Multi-Storey Commercial Building using HAP

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ME 439 Refrigeration and HVAC

CEP REPORT

Hassan Ayub (2018144)

Hasnain Raza (2018151)
Ibad Hussain (2018161)

Instructor: Dr Asif
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Table of Contents
Problem Statement ......................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4
Literature Review ........................................................................................................................... 4
HAP 4.90 Software Inputs ............................................................................................................. 6
HAP Design and Simulation Results ........................................................................................... 10
Theoretical Calculations for verification ..................................................................................... 12
Results and Discussions ............................................................................................................... 14
References .................................................................................................................................... 14
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Complex Engineering Problem (CEP)

Course: Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning (ME-439) Fall 2021

Problem Statement 1:

Design an HVAC Cooling Load Calculator on an excel sheet. Apply the designed calculator on the following case study for
Centaurus building (8 storey building) where working hours are from 10:00 am to 1100 pm.
Location: 33 deg N latitude, 73 deg east longitude
Floor Area: 75 ft x 80 ft
Height of each floor: 15 ft
People: 7 per 1000 sq-ft
Type of window: double glazed with overall U = 0.55 BTU/hr ft3 F and area is 20% of the wall area
Wall: curtain wall structure, choose as per Ashrae standard type
Roof: as per Ashrae standard type 13
Ventilation requirement: 0.8 ACH or 30 cfm per person
Assume the following design conditions:
Outdoor Designed Conditions: 38C DBT, 32C WBT
Indoor Designed Conditions: DBT 25 F, relative humidity 50%, daily range 20, assume wind velocity 7.5 mph.
Lighting: 1000 watt of lighting per room
You can assume conditions logically as per requirement of a large shopping hall.

Analyze the cooling load, in terms of sensible and latent for building by comparing cooling load for three months (June,
July and August) only the daily range and outdoor designed temperature may change. Show analysis in the form of a
graph.

CEP Attributes Mapping:

(Sr.#1 is mandatory and at least one from the remaining 2~9).

S. No Attribute Justification

1 Preamble The proposed problem required in-depth knowledge of empirical

and analytical relations used for cooling load calculations.
In-depth engineering knowledge

2 Range of conflicting requirements The proposed design solution for each of the solutions can be
different depending upon the assumptions and correlations used
for the solution.

3 Depth of analysis required
The problem requires calculation based on the available
parameters from ASHRAE Standard handbook, knowledge of solar
radiation, human comfort, and heat transmission through building.
The impact of outdoor design conditions on cooling load will be
analyzed.
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4 Depth of knowledge required The calculation of cooling load required knowledge from heat
transfer, solar radiation, psychrometry, human comfort, and
specialized correlations based on ASRAE standard.

5 Familiarity of issues The CEP is related to the course ME-439, the related theory is
taught in the classroom.

6 Extent of applicable codes ASHRAE Standard

7 Extent of stakeholder involvement and level of N/A

conflicting requirement

8 Consequences N/A

9 Interdependence N/A

Duration: Phase 1: 4 weeks after mid-exam

Phase 2: last week of classes
Assessment: Oral discussion every second week (Phase 1) Report and Oral discussion/viva
(Phase 2)
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Introduction
Cooling load is the removal of heat from space at a certain rate to get the desired design condition. Cooling in a
space is required for variety of purposes and mostly it is desired to create a space of human comfort so they can
perform their activities in a favorable environment. The cooling load in a building has different components like
internal load (which is the heat generated by equipment, occupants, and light sources), external load (heat
transferred through the building envelope, walls, roof, floor, windows, doors) and ventilation/infiltration load.
These loads mostly involve sensible and latent heat components. These loads calculations are performed using
the data from ASHRAE fundamental charts which provides enormous amount of data for calculation of internal
and external loads. After performing the calculations all these loads can be summed up to get the estimation of
the required cooling load. This estimation is performed by assuming unsteady state process. Cooling load
calculations is helpful to provide insight about the heat entering the building and internal heat generation, which
can then be controlled and minimized through careful design improvements of building infrastructure and
utilizations of power and heat generating equipment. Energy efficient design of building and the desired cooling
load estimation plays a main role because currently a huge part of the power is utilized to run the HVAC system.
Hence for design and development of cooling load software is mandatory to incorporate the energy efficiency
features to reduce the power utilization and acquire accurate and fast results.

Literature Review
The method that can be utilized for cooling load calculation is by use of forms used for load estimation; these
forms are the standard procedure that are made by designer or company. This technique can help save time and
effort. This method is an approximation but can give convincing results that can be used for the selection of
required capacity of the conditioning units. The ASHRAE charts from the fundamental handbooks contain an
enormous amount of data for the load calculation. These forms or charts consist up of tabulated data as a function
of the required or designed difference in temperature. These charts consist of the data related to direct solar
radiation, transmission load through exposed walls (un-insulated and those with different degree of insulation),
partition walls, all the possible types of roofs, floors, ceilings, walls, and outdoor air load. Sometimes, for high
accuracy and lesser approximations companies tend to utilize or prepare their own load estimation charts.[1]
Estimation of cooling load creates the criteria for selection of required equipment such as air handling units
(AHU), boilers, cooling towers, chillers, fans, pumps, and coil units etc. But it is different in case of an actual
intelligent HVAC system that has now been developed, and in these models the system adjusts accordingly to the
desired load requirements and other conditions. These HVAC systems have high energy efficiencies and this
software carry out the load estimation on hourly analysis basis, the software program like (HAPv4.90) is a widely
utilized commercial software that performs the cooling/heating load calculation on hourly basis and helps
engineers in designing HVAC systems for different buildings. [2]
Airconditioning goal is to supply a required favorable atmosphere to different sort of public buildings such as
offices, halls, homes, and industries for human comfort and proper condition so industrial processes can be carried
out at proper performance. Full air-conditioning goal is that the space atmosphere must have purity, proper air
flow movement and adequate temperature and relative humidity of the air according to the design specification.
For any air conditioning system to perform adequately, equipment having proper capacity must be selected based
on instantaneous peak load requirements. The HAP program can be used for any building design to calculate the
load and select the systems. [3]
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Building Structure
The building has eight floors, and each floor is divided into five zones. The CAD model of the building is made
on Fusion software. It has different zones. These different zones have different cooling load due to different sort
of power equipment and heat transmission through solar radiation. The top and bottom floor has variation in
height with reference of the neutral due to greater number of opening compared to other zones. The building is
rectangular in shape. The floor-to-floor height is 15ft. The total floor area of the building is 48000ft2. The walls
and roof structures also play a important role in cooling load. The walls design in the building is a curtain wall
structure.
Curtain Wall Structure
A curtain wall is an exterior building wall that carries no roof or floor loads and is partially or completely made
up of glass and other surfacing materials supported by a framework. A curtain wall typically has a metal frame to
improve the thermal performance. Thermally improved metal curtain wall products are now being used more
widely. In these products, most of the metal frame tends to be located on the indoor side with only a metal cap
exposed on the outdoor side. An important consideration in any curtain wall system is durability. Sealants or
gaskets that degrade or fail over time allow additional air infiltration, which negatively affects energy
consumption. A durable system minimizes air infiltration and thereby energy consumption. [4]
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HAP 4.90 Software Inputs:

HAP 4.90 is a commercial HVAC software used for computing heating and cooling loads of buildings. We used
this software for our CEP. We run the wizard sessions in the software after which we are asked to input various
data like location of building, weather properties, defining building dimensions and zoning, defining the wall
type, roof type, window type, door type, occupancy levels, lighting and electrical equipment wattages, infiltration
levels, HVAC equipment type, details of equipment, indoor design conditions required from equipment, and all
related quantities. The images below are in sequence and show the inputs we gave in this wizard session. After
this, further modifications were done in the building and air system properties to set and achieve the desired
conditions as stated in the CEP. All these instructions are given in HAP 4.90 manual. British units were used.
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HAP Design and Simulation Results

Once all relevant inputs were given the designed system was simulated and the following report was generated.
Firstly, the plant sizing and all the relevant information was displayed after which the plant loads, inputs and
outputs were shown, along with monthly and daily profiles/plots of cooling load for the design months.
Furthermore, the air system sizing, along with the relevant details and the zone wise load summary which details
all the sensible and latent loads is shown. Everything is clearly represented and in case of any ambiguity the HAP
E-Manual can be consulted which details all the steps in setting up a system for computation of its cooling/heating
loads and generating its reports. The reference of this manual is given below. The total cooling load of the central
HVAC plant is 1173.8 Tons of Refrigeration. The intermediate floors from 1st to 7th floor are assumed to
have same zone requirements and loads. The interface of HAP 4.90 is shown below:

Assumptions:
• 1 Zone= 1 room
• Number of Zones: 5
• Total Number of Spaces: 15 (As intermediate floors have similar Zone 1 to 5, 5+5+5, Ground+
Intermediate+ Top)
• Activity level: medium work
• Electrical equipment: 1000 W per zone
• Equipment type: Chilled Water AHU and CAV (continuous air volume Air systems and one AHU per
zone)
• Each floor 1ft in thickness

Few more assumptions had to be taken in our simulation when few CEP requirements could not be
incorporated due to error returning in software and lack of resources available online related to the
software. They are:
• The assumption of schedule of 13 hours from 10:00 am to 11:00 pm could not be incorporated as some
error was occurring when we tried to create a schedule and insert it in our plant and air systems. So, instead
we used standard ASHRAE 90.1 Retail HVAC for thermostat and fan schedule in our AHUs, ASHRAE
90.1 Retail Lights/ Electricity for schedule of lighting and electrical equipment usage, and ASHRAE 90.1
Retail Occupancy for schedule of working hours (when people visit the mall). These standards assume
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that the timings are 7:00 am to 8:00 pm. They are already fed in HAP software and can easily be selected.
• Type of window to be used was double glazed with overall U = 0.55 BTU/hr ft3 F and area had to be 20%
of the wall area, while wall had to be a curtain wall structure. For our HAP system, in order to incorporate
curtain wall structure, the only way was to choose curtain wall ASHRAE Standard from window option
and make the window at least 50% of the wall. For the wall, we chose a steel frame wall. This gave valid
and sensible results. Similarly, for roof, ASHRAE type 13 had to be chosen. This was not already fed in
HAP software, and creating the roof was giving some error. So. we chose another ASHRAE standard roof
from the default options.
• Daily, Monthly and yearly data of Islamabad was not available on HAP 4.90 so data of Karachi was used
but outside weather conditions were kept the same as CEP statement demanded.

For consultation of steps involved in HAP:

http://www.energoplus.si/uploads/9/0/0/6/90062089/e20s-hap50_manual.pdf

A - Int Floor BLD1-FTYP-Z0x stands for Building Intermediate Floor Zone number
A - Floor 8 BLD1-F008-Z0x stands for Building Top Floor Zone number
A - Floor 1 BLD1-F001-Z0x stands for Building Ground Floor Zone number

➢ After this part the auto generated HAP Reports are attached
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Mathematical Calculations being performed in HAP 4.90

Although the calculations to be performed and the respective equations to be used are already fed in HAP
software, this section will give a brief overview of all the mathematical work being done at the backend of HAP
4.90.
Manual Calculations for Ground Floor
The zone divisioning for ground floor is shown in fig below.

Zone No No. of walls Exposed Wall No. of shops Wall area Roof area
per shop Side (𝑓𝑡 2 ) (𝑓𝑡 2 )
1 1 N 1 LxH LxW
2 1 E 1 LxH LxW
3 1 S 1 LxH LxW
4 1 W 1 LxH LxW
5 - Interior - -

Roof
The heat transfer through the roof is given by
𝑄𝑅𝑜𝑜𝑓 = 𝑈𝐴𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑓 (𝐶𝐿𝑇𝐷𝑐 )

Where
𝐶𝐿𝑇𝐷𝑐 = 𝐶𝐿𝑇𝐷𝑅𝑜𝑜𝑓 + (78 − 𝑇𝑅) + (𝑇𝑀 − 85)

𝑇𝑅 = 𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑇𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 = 25℃ = 77℉

𝐷𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒
𝑇𝑀 = 𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑂𝑢𝑡𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑟 𝑇𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 = 𝑂𝑢𝑡𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑟 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑇𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 −
2
Wall
The heat transfer through the roof is given by
𝑄𝑊𝑎𝑙𝑙 = 𝑈𝐴𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 (𝐶𝐿𝑇𝐷𝑐 )
Where
𝐶𝐿𝑇𝐷𝑐 = 𝐶𝐿𝑇𝐷𝑅𝑜𝑜𝑓 + (78 − 𝑇𝑅) + (𝑇𝑀 − 85)

𝑇𝑅 = 𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑇𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 = 25℃ = 77℉

𝐷𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒
𝑇𝑀 = 𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑂𝑢𝑡𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑟 𝑇𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 = 𝑂𝑢𝑡𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑟 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑇𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 −
2
People
The heat gain due to people can be either sensible or latent heat gain. The sensible heat gain is given by
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𝑄𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 = 𝑁(𝑆𝐻𝐺)(𝐶𝐿𝐹)
And, the latent heat gain is given by
𝑄𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 = 𝑁(𝐿𝐻𝐺)
Where N = No. of people in one shop, SHG = Sensible heat gain, LHG = latent heat gain, and CLF = Cooling
load factor. The values for SHG and LHG can be found from ASHRAE Standard 2007, chapter 28, table 3, and
the value of CLF are picked from table 37, chapter 28, of the same standard. Using the above relations and constant
values from the ASHRAE Standard, the heat gain values are then computed.
Lights
The heat gain due to lights in conditioned space is given by
𝑄𝐿𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 = 3.41 × 𝑊 × 𝐹𝑈𝑇 × 𝐹𝑆𝐴 × 𝐶𝐿𝐹

Where W = lights watts, 𝐹𝑈𝑇 is the utilization factor and its value is 1, 𝐹𝑆𝐴 is the ballast factor and it’s value is
1.25 for fluorescent lights. Similarly, the values of CLF are picked from table 38, chapter 27 of the ASHRAE
Standard 2007, and the heat gains are then computed for the time interval 10:00 am to 11:00 pm.
Appliances
The heat gain due to appliances in the conditioned space is given by
𝑄𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 = 𝑄𝑖𝑛 × 𝐹𝑈 × 𝐹𝑅 × 𝐶𝐿𝐹
And 𝑄𝐿𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 = 𝑄𝑖𝑛 × 𝐹𝑈
Where 𝑄𝑖𝑛 is the appliances rated energy input, 𝐹𝑈 is the usage factor, 𝐹𝑅 is the radiative factor, and CLF is the
cooling load factor. The Values for usage factor and radiative factor are picked from table 6 and table 7, while
the values for CLF are picked from table 39, chapter 28 of ASHRAE Standard 2007, and the values for heat gain
due to appliances is then calculated.
Ventilation
The heat gain due to ventilation comprises of two parts, i.e., Sensible heat gain, and latent heat gain. The sensible
gain is given by
𝑄𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 = 1.08 × 𝐶𝐹𝑀 × ∆𝑇
Similarly, the latent heat gain due to ventilation is given by
𝑄𝐿𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 = 4840 × 𝐶𝐹𝑀 × ∆𝑊
𝑄𝐿𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 = 4840 × 𝐶𝐹𝑀 × (𝑊𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑟 − 𝑊𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑟 )
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Results and Discussions

The results obtained from the simulation show that the monthly cooling load is maximum in the month of July
peaking at 6.0 M kBtu by the end of the month. The average daily load in July was 17765.6 Tons-hrs, which was
higher than June and August. The peak load timing in each of the months is 15:00 hours. However, the highest
hourly cooling load was recorded in days of June at time 15:00, and the load was 1173.8 Tons. An increasing
trend of cooling load is present from January to end of July, after which, there is a decreasing trend till December.
The maximum heat gains and thus the cooling load was for the top-most floor, then it was the ground floor, and
then it was the intermediate floors. The values are shown in the report. The system was made as accurate as
possible, however few assumptions were taken along the way which may slightly affect the final results.

References

[1] F. Ansari, A. Mokhtar, K. Abbas, and N. Adam, "A simple approach for building cooling load
estimation," American Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 209-212, 2005.
[2] S. Zaphar and T. Sheworke, "Computer Program for Cooling Load Estimation and Comparative
Analysis with Hourly Analysis Program (HAP) Software," International Journal of Latest
Technology in Engineering, Management & Applied Science, vol. 7, pp. 53-61.
[3] H. H. Sait, "Estimated thermal load and selecting of suitable air-conditioning systems for a three
story educational building," Procedia Computer Science, vol. 19, pp. 636-645, 2013.
[4] https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/ashrae-handbook

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