COOLING LOAD ANALYSIS IN CLASSROOMS: A CASE STUDY IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO VALLEY, BRAZIL

Abstract

This paper aims to calculate the cooling thermal load of 32 classrooms of Federal University of San Francisco Valley, located in Petrolina, Brazil, using the software EnergyPlus™ and the graphic user interface OpenStudio®. OpenStudio® also has a plug-in to Sketchup, which allowed the construction of a tridimensional energetic model of the considered building. EnergyPlus™ takes into account climatic conditions, schedules, construction materials and internal loads such as people occupancy, lightning and electric equipment, and so it calculates the cooling thermal load. Then the cooling thermal load of a single classroom was calculated by three traditional methods described in the literature, and the results were compared with the one from EnergyPlus™. The results of the 32 classrooms differed according to the building story where the classrooms are located, the orientation of walls and windows in each classroom, as well as the internal loads. Regarding the single classroom analysis, the component loads of each method were compared. For some components, such as lightning and electrical equipment, the results were very similar among all the methods, what was not verified for other componentes, such as the infiltration and solar gains. The overall cooling load results from the traditional methods were similar, but too high compared with the results from EnergyPlus™.