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An Online Residential Cooling Load Calculation Program

K. Yeong and F. C. Lai School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering University of Oklahoma Norman, Oklahoma 73019

Abstract

This paper presents an online interactive program and how it can benefit students of engineering and architecture in the learning of residential cooling load calculation. This program is also helpful in the training of professional engineers and architects in the basic load calculations. It can be used as a stand-alone teaching aid or an add-on component for any online course dealing with air-conditioning or architectural design. The implementation of this online load calculation program has greatly enhanced the learning experience of our students in the study of air- conditioning systems and the design of energy-efficient buildings.

I. Introduction

To design an energy-efficient building and size the air-conditioning system properly, a good estimate of the cooling load is very important. The cooling load of a building represents the heat that must be removed from the interior of a building to maintain the thermal comfortable zone for its occupants. The cooling load is different from the heat gain since some of the heat gains, such as solar radiation, are absorbed by the building’s structural components and do not appear as the cooling load until sometime later.1,2 Cooling load is generally divided into sensible and latent loads. Sensible cooling load includes heat gain through building envelopes, heat gain due to infiltration and ventilation, as well as heat gains from solar radiation, lights, equipment and occupants. Sensible cooling load is manifested by a rise in the temperature of the air. On the other hand, the latent cooling loads are mainly due to air exchange, equipment operation and occupant’s activity, which become important when there is a significant difference in the humidity of air. The calculation of cooling load is an important subject for both engineering and architecture students, which is usually taught in several undergraduate courses (for example, these include Heat Transfer, Design of Thermal-Fluid Systems, Air-Conditioning Systems, Environmental Systems in Architecture, Environmental Control for Buildings, and Advanced Building Systems in our engineering and architecture curricula).

Several methods have been developed for the calculation of cooling load3. These include the method of Cooling Load Temperature Difference/Solar Cooling Load Factors/ Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education

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Lai, F. (2004, June), An Online Residential Cooling Load Calculation Program Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--12891