Calculation of design cooling and heating loads is a key task for ASHRAE and to its UK sister organization, CIBSE. Both societies publish methods for calculating design cooling and heating load calculations in their handbooks. However, each organization has taken somewhat different approaches to the cooling load calculation procedure. There is a need to provide the technical basis for the harmonization of heating and cooling load calculation methods used by ASHRAE and CIBSE.

The objective of this research is to quantify the differences between the predictions of the various heating and cooling load calculation procedures used by ASHRAE and CIBSE and to identify the method(s) that appear to offer sufficient accuracy, consistent with the practical requirements of the user. Additionally, it will identify any technical or other barriers to the harmonization of loads calculations in the USA, the UK and Western Europe as well as provide a practical guide for the international practitioner who must deal with the diverse methodologies in the interim.

PRINCAL INVESTIGATOR: Philip Haves and Jeffrey Spitler, Loughborough University of Technology
CONDUCTED: October 1996 - October 1997
SPONSORED BY: TC 4.1, Load Calculation Data and Procedure