Department of Mechanical Engineering

University of Waterloo

ME 100 – Mechanical Engineering Communication and Professionalism

Communications Assignment Week #5 – 6 Fall 2005

Objective:
The objective of this week’s assignment is to develop a thermal model of the existing
house, and to verify the model by estimating the maximum heat required during the
coldest day and the average heat energy used over a year.

Principles:
The physical principles which form the basis of this model were discussed in class and
are summarized in the document: ME100 Heat Transfer Lecture Notes. This document
also includes important information regarding the calculation of insulating values for the
existing house.

The model requires information about the wall (and window, roof or door) area and its
thermal properties. This is combined with temperature data, design temperature and
annual degree-days, to calculate the maximum heating load and the annual heat energy
requirements, respectively.

Procedure:
Given Data:
Approximate measurements for Professor Lambert’s house are provided in the excel
spreadsheet: Room Dimensions.xls. The house has been divided into walls (north, west,
south and east), and each wall has been further subdivided into levels (upper, lower and
basement). Dimensions are given for the height and length of each feature in inches.
Dimensions for walls are ‘gross’ and so no account has been made for the area of
windows or doors in these walls. Be sure to calculate the net area of each wall by
subtracting the area of windows or doors from the gross wall area. Note that some walls
have two windows with the same dimensions. The dimensions given are for one window
only. Included in the spreadsheet are schematic representations of each wall, which
should help to understand the meaning of the given dimensions.

Area Calculation:
The first step in the modeling process is to calculate the area of all exterior surfaces. First
convert the dimensions to ft and then calculate the area in ft2. For each wall surface, you
should calculate the total area of each sub-surface with a different R-value. For example,
for the North wall, you should have the total (net) area for the stone wall (above grade),
the windows, the top 2’ of the basement walls, and the bottom 4’ of the basement walls.
For the West wall, you would also need data for the roof and the door.

Note that the estimation of heat loss due to air infiltration requires the calculation of floor
area and house volume. Include these calculations in the spreadsheet.
Insulating Values:
Insert the appropriate insulating value (R-value) into the column beside the appropriate
area. The document ME100 Heat Transfer Lecture Notes contains guidance on the choice
of insulating values. Calculate the quantity A/R for each surface.

Heat loss is calculated by multiplying A/R times the temperature difference. Assume a
temperature difference of 1 Fo to obtain a normalized heat loss, Q ,in Btu/hr per Fo for
each surface. Create a table which summarizes the total normalized heat loss for the
walls, roof, windows, doors, basement, and due to air infiltration. Air infiltration heat loss
is estimated based on the estimated number of air exchanges times the volume times the
temperature difference. It can thus be handled in a similar manner to that from
conduction through external surfaces.

Create a pie chart to illustrate the distribution of heat loss for the existing house from
each of the surfaces included above, including air filtration.

Heat Loss and Energy Usage:

The table below provides design data from the Ontario Building Code, 1997 edition. The
same data was provided for an earlier assignment. Using the 1% design temperature for
Fergus as the external temperature and an internal temperature of 18 oC, estimate the
worst-case heat loss for the existing house. Be sure to convert your temperature
difference to Fo. The existing furnace has a rating of 81,600 Btu/hr (102,000 Btu/hr
natural gas input). Compare your results to this rating and comment.

The annual energy usage can be estimated by multiplying the normalized heat loss for the
entire house in Btu/hr time the number of degree-days per year. Be sure to multiply the
number of degree-days by 24 to get degree-hours, and convert from Co to Fo. Use the
design degree-days for Fergus in the table below. Using a furnace efficiency of 80% and
a natural gas heating value of about 1000 Btu/ft3, estimate the expected annual natural gas
usage (in m3) for heating the existing house. Compare this result with your previous
analysis of Professor Lambert’s heating bills.

Location Design Temperature Degree Days

2.5% oC 1% oC Below 18 oC
Fergus -20 -22 4600
Kitchener -19 -21 4250
Waterloo -19 -21 4300
Windsor -16 -18 3600
Timmins -34 -36 6200

Deliverables:
Submit a table of the normalized heat loss for the different surfaces and pie chart of this
data. Print this table and pie chart on a single page. Submit one page of text discussing
these results, the worst-case energy usage compared with the size of the existing furnace,
and the estimated annual heat load versus the average natural gas used. Be sure to include
one page summary of your spreadsheet calculations.