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Commercial Building HVAC Energy Usage in Semi-Tropical Climates
Abstract
The design of heating and cooling equipment in
semi-tropical climates presents some design considerations
and limitations not so prevalent in temperate
climates. In some cases, the heating season may
be non-existent for all practical purposes. Another
consideration is the high ventilation loads due to
cooling the moist air prevalent in semi-tropical
climates. This paper describes a computer program
which assesses all the pertinent variables which
comprise the annual heating and cooling energy
requirements for commercial buildings. It is then
suggested that this computer program would be
valuable in determining the changes one could expect
in annual energy usage by varying certain building
design parameters. Secondly, a small office building
actually constructed in Central Florida in which
the author designed the Heating and Cooling HVAC
system is described. Tradeoffs are presented
showing the effects of changes in these building
design parameters.
Citation
Worbs, H. E. (1987). Commercial Building HVAC Energy Usage in Semi-Tropical Climates. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /6498.