Investigation of the cooling thermal load of a multifamily residential building by different heat transfer algorithms heat

Abstract

Electricity consumption for air conditioning is directly related to the heat load to be removed according to the cooling capacity defined for a specific location. In this context, the heat transfer algorithms used in estimating the thermal load of buildings are relevant to help define the air conditioning system. This study aimed to investigate the variability of the cooling power of residential buildings, through the application of different combinations of algorithms available in the library of the ©Energy Plus program, to calculate the internal/external convection and energy balance. Thirty combinations were possible, which were organized into three groups according to the internal convection algorithms. To verify the results, the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the Kruskal Wallis test were performed in order to identify significant differences in the data obtained. Through the results of the tests, it is concluded that there is at least one significant difference between the organized groups. Complementarily, the PostHoc test was also performed to assess in which groups the differences diverged the most. In this way, the choice of the numerical method showed significant influence in the definition of the artificial climate systems of the buildings. In short, as a contribution, the present work sought to demonstrate the weight of choosing different combinations of algorithms in estimating the cooling thermal load as a way of helping the decision-making process when defining its simulation inputs.