Heating Load Calculations

Knowing the ‘heating load’, the quantity of heat per unit time that must be supplied to maintain the optimum temperature within a building or portion of a building at a given level, is an invaluable calculation when estimating the kind of heating you require and it’s likely running costs.

While it is readily obvious that all buildings suffer a loss of heat through windows, doors, roofs and walls, what is not so immediately clear is that heat is also both generated and lost to the working environment by people, machinery, water and steam pipes, air ducts and the movement of air from draught sources amongst others.

Optimum heating levels can also be influenced by numerous other ‘human factors’, such as:

• The nature of work undertaken
• It’s physical nature
• Clothing worn (including protective clothing)
• The age and wellness of a workforce.

Temperature controls may be applied by a variety of means, depending on proximity and human factors, such as:

• Locally by manual or automated thermostats, switches or dampers.
• Centrally by manual or automated thermostats, switches or dampers.
• Building management systems.

While there are various tutorials that walk you through the estimating process, there are some useful tools and phone apps that can aid in such calculations. Powrmatic have one such app that can be downloaded for Apple and Android mobile devices (click links). You can see a useful tutorial on how it works by clicking the video below.