Steady-State and Dynamic Indicators of Cooling Requirement of Commercial Buildings in Tropical Climate

Development and assessment of steady-state and dynamic indicators of cooling requirement for four types of commercial buildings in tropical climate are presented. Cooling-degree hour, dry-bulb temperature and enthalpy of ambient air are all shown to be good indicators of the weather-influenced component of cooling requirement of a building. A dynamic indicator developed as a performance indicator of the envelope of a building is shown to be a good indicator and also is linearly related to the external factor of the cooling requirement of the building. The result shows that the cooling requirement of a building can be related linearly to the dynamic indicator and other energy usage parameters such as lighting and equipment power use.