Heat Load 2

[macmet]

I am looking to estimate the heat load that is ~50K ft2, with an 15 ft ceiling. I was told the building is poorly insulated. They want to keep the building around 20 deg C in the winter. Can I use building footprint and height to estimate this?

The building in located in the northern canadian climate (it's cold seven months a year).

I do not know what other information might be helpful. I really only need a rough number at this time.

 

[BronYrAur]

The question is so subjective since you don't know insulation values, etc. I want to see how others weigh in on this. You are probably in the range of 45-50 BTUH/sqft, but take that with a grain of salt. That does not include any ventilation air being brought into the building.

 

[imok2]

For a single story masonery exposed all walls my cristal ball says about 5 btu/cuft at 30*F osa or for your building 3,750,000 btu/hr. Of course if the OSA temperature goes down then the heat loss would increase

 

[macmet]

I am really only trying to find a ball park figure right now. If it goes any further we'd contact a consultant but we are just trying to get a feel of how much additional heat load would be used.

Both Bronyraur and imok have given values less than 5mmbtu/hr. I will use 5mmbtu/hr as a conservative assumption, unless anyone feels as thought that would be too low.

 

[BronYrAur]

I can't see how you could go wrong with 5,000,000 btuh, unless you are bringing in an excessive amount of outside ventilation air.

 

[MintJulep]

If you can get energy use and hourly temperature data for a reasonable period of time (a month would do) you could back-calculate the overall insulation value.