Commercial Building HVAC Energy Usage in Semi-Tropical Climates

The design of heating and cooling equipment in\nsemi-tropical climates presents some design considerations\nand limitations not so prevalent in temperate\nclimates. In some cases, the heating season may\nbe non-existent for all practical purposes. Another\nconsideration is the high ventilation loads due to\ncooling the moist air prevalent in semi-tropical\nclimates. This paper describes a computer program\nwhich assesses all the pertinent variables which\ncomprise the annual heating and cooling energy\nrequirements for commercial buildings. It is then\nsuggested that this computer program would be\nvaluable in determining the changes one could expect\nin annual energy usage by varying certain building\ndesign parameters. Secondly, a small office building\nactually constructed in Central Florida in which\nthe author designed the Heating and Cooling HVAC\nsystem is described. Tradeoffs are presented\nshowing the effects of changes in these building\ndesign parameters.