This free software is a user-friendly heat load calculation tool based on British standards for the energy performance of buildings (BS: 13790).
An appropriate determination of the heat load of buildings is important for the optimisation of heat use. The load calculation process dictates the equipment selection and duct design to deliver conditioned air to each room in a given building.
Many designers use a simple square foot method for sizing the heating and cooling system. Such a method is useful in preliminary estimation of the equipment size, but the main drawback of rule-of-thumb methods is the presumption that the building design will not make any difference. It does.
Seren’s Heat Load Calculator (HLC) has been developed by Cardiff University’s Geoenvironmental Research Centre (GRC) as part of the Seren project.
Current heat demand calculation tools tend to be very limited in their scope and very complex and costly to use. The HLC tool remedies this, and includes valuable information on the effects from:
- climate;
- description of building and building components, systems and use;
- comfort requirements (set-point temperatures and ventilation rates);
- transmission and ventilation properties; and
- heat gains from internal heat sources, solar properties.
The HLC provides the following as main outputs:
- Annual and monthly values of energy needs for space heating and cooling;
- Monthly values of main elements in the energy balance, e.g. transmission, ventilation, internal heat gains and solar heat; and
- Annual running cost with various types of energy system for the required energy need.
By developing this easy-to-use tool, it is hoped that the GRC’s Seren project will be of direct benefit to Welsh SMEs striving to calculate the energy demands of buildings. Successful implementation of this software will not only improve the determination of energy demand, but will also help to promote low energy buildings and low carbon technology.
To request a copy of the GRC Seren Heat Load Calculator, or to request further information, please contact:
The GRC, (Seren project), School of Engineering,
Cardiff University, The Queen’s Buildings,
The Parade, Newport Road,
Cardiff, CF24 3AA
Tel: +44 (0) 29 2087 0497
Email: Seren@Cardiff.ac.uk
