Cooling Load Ballpark Estimator
Instructions:
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Review the methodology to ensure it aligns with your project's requirements.
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Select US or Metric Units.
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Enter the project area.
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Select the building type from the dropdown menu. We encourage you to try different building types to see the full possible range of cooling loads and to better hone in on the correct result for your project.
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The results will appear in the table.
A sanity check, not a load calculation. Each result is the entered area divided by a per-area check figure for the chosen building type, so it reports what buildings of that type have historically installed rather than anything about this building's construction, orientation, glazing or climate.
Most building types carry an average figure only. A type listed with a range reports Lo, Avg and Hi; where the table has no figure the box stays empty, which is the workbook's own way of saying that band is not listed for that type, not that the answer is zero. Trying neighbouring building types is the intended way to bracket a project.
Refrigeration is reported twice, once in tons and once converted: 12,000 BTU/h per ton in US units, 3.52 kW per ton in Metric. The Metric figures are the same table converted at 0.092903 m² per ft².
The Lights & Other Electrical figures do not read as watts. 'IP'!E1:G52 holds ASHRAE lighting and equipment power densities in W/ft², which have to be multiplied by the area, and Sheet5 row 12 divides by them like the ft²-per-person and ft²-per-ton columns beside them. The table contradicts itself as a result: adding blow driers to a public bathroom raises the density from 2 to 8 W/ft² and halves the refrigeration figure from 400 to 200 ft² per ton, yet the calculator reports a quarter of the watts for twice the cooling. This page reproduces the published numbers unchanged; treat the watts as indicative only.
The three tons-of-refrigeration figures display to two decimals, matching the live page's own eedisplayFloatND(..., 2) call. The methodology blog post quotes them rounded to whole tons, which is prose rounding rather than what the page shows.
Methodology:
The calculator computes the Occupants, Lighting, and Refrigeration based on the building type and the building's square footage. Some building types will result in a range of results, while some will provide singular results for lighting, occupancy, and refrigeration. We encourage you to review the Building Type list and try different building types to understand the possible range and hone in on the best result for your project.
Welcome to Adicot's Cooling Load Ballpark Estimator, where precision meets practicality. This powerful tool is designed to quickly and reliably estimate cooling load requirements for various spaces. Whether you're an HVAC professional, an architect, or a building owner, our calculator offers a quick way to get a pre-design ballpark estimate of your cooling load before a full analysis has been performed or to compare with your load calculation results.
The calculator is not intended to replace a proper load calculation but instead gives an insight into a range of what other buildings of the same type have historically installed for refrigeration, occupancy, and lights and equipment. These estimates do not consider any of the customary inputs used in a load calculation; for example, building materials efficiencies, geographic location, building orientation, number of windows, etc. When using this calculator, consider that as buildings become more efficient and lighting and equipment become more efficient, the watts and tons will trend lower.
This information was adapted from ASHRAE Fundamentals Handbook and other various sources.
This calculator is best used on a computer or tablet.