Building Heat Transfer Laboratory

This experimental facility, which was designed and constructed specifically to measure cooling loads, has several key features. First, it consists of two separate buildings of differing thermal mass in order to demonstrate the ability of the cooling load procedures to correctly differentiate between thermally massive and thermally lightweight structures. The facility is well sealed to minimize the infiltration heat gain and has a high percentage of glazed surfaces in order to maximize solar heat gains. The facility can be configured with or without a suspended ceiling, blinds, carpet and furniture.

The facility was constructed in an open field on the campus of Oklahoma State University. Temperatures, humidity, wind speed and solar radiation are just a few of the measurements logged every five minutes at a Mesonet weather station located within a half mile of the facility. The buildings' air handling systems are identical, constant volume systems that continuously adjust the deck temperature to maintain a constant room temperature. The ventilative flow rate and room inlet and outlet temperatures are the critical measurements required to control the system and calculate the space cooling load.

These buildings were being used for validation of cooling load calculation procedures as part of ASHRAE 1117-RP.