Abstract
The basic factors determining the amount of energy used in hospital buildings are weather conditions and building factors. But the real energy consumer is central plant equipment such as boilers and chillers that produce thermal energy for heating and cooling. Inaccurate decision of the primary equipment's size can cause a high initial-cost, an excessive equipment space, a wasted energy by low operation-efficiency and shortening of the machine's life. In this reason, the decision of optimal size for central plant equipment is very important. There are several factors for the decision such as an operation factor, a factor (equipment factor), piping losses and a simultaneous usage factor applied in the sizing process except a basic cooling load. But there is no standard method for applying those factors. Usually, factors are applied individually by an experience or custom of each engineer. In this study, the authors emphasize the meaning and the problem of those factors, examine them by analyzing factors which were applied to actual practices, and propose the recommendation value of safety, load, operation factors and application methods.