ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the practical assessment of loads for one particular application – an office block in London. Most air conditioning systems operate at their design loads for only a small part of their life and it follows that the designer should be concerned not only with the maximum heat gains and cooling loads but also with the way these change throughout the day and over the year. It is customary to suppose that the occupied area, and hence the area for which the loads are calculated, is the pair of peripheral strips, each 6 m wide. Refrigeration load is the sum of sensible and latent heat gains, fresh air load, fan power, duct heat gain and, in the case of water chillers, a small allowance for pump power and heat gains to pipes. In the case of poorly designed systems there may be an additional item for wasteful heat that cancels part of the refrigeration capacity.
