ASHRAE standard tackles office equipment heat gain

摘要

According to ASHRAE, the growing use of plug loads in buildings as well as insufficient data on how much energy they generate present a challenge to engineers in determining how to best cool a building. Guidance to meet that challenge is contained in a new standard from the society. ASHRAE/ANSI Standard 203-2014, Method of Test for Determining Heat Gain of Office Equipment Used in Buildings, prescribes methods of test to determine the range and average operating heat gains of electrical equipment for use in cooling load calculations. The standard applies to plug-load type electrical equipment. Plug loads (computers, monitors, printers, projectors, etc.) are estimated to use between 20% and 50% of building energy use. They have evolved to become a larger percentage of a building's overall heat.