May 27, 2005—Engineers throughout the industry rely on multiple heating and cooling load calculation methods to accurately determine system and equipment sizes for buildings of varying size, materials and complexity.
A proposed standard from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) aims to establish minimum requirements for the methods used to determine peak heating and cooling loads and the input of data into methods, according to Chris Wilkins, chair of the committee writing the standard.
ASHRAE Standard 183P, Methods and Procedures for Performing Peak Heating and Cooling Load Calculations in Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is open for public comment. It opened for comment on May 6.
The biggest challenge is allowing for enough flexibility that an engineer can choose the appropriate tool (method) for calculating the load while at the same time being strict enough that an appropriate level of accuracy is attained for all methods, Wilkins said.
Wilkins further explained that Standard 183P does not dictate a particular method or program but does establish a minimum level of care that would apply to any method. The standard draws information from the Societys Handbook and publications and assigned criteria is based on accepted practices for determining peak loads.
To obtain an electronic draft version of ASHRAE Standard 183P during the comment period, visit the standards for public review shortcut on ASHRAE.org.
