AppliedEnergy50 (1995)247 268

1995 Elsevier Science Limited

Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0306-2619/95/$9.50
ELSEVIER

0306-2619(94)

00023-9

Parameterization Study of the Overall Thermal-Transfer

Value Equation for Buildings
W. K. Chow & K. T. Chan
Department o f Building Services Engineering,
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT
Modern buildings in Hong Kong are characterized by high window-to-wall
ratios. This leads to large energy consumption due to the solar radiative heat
gain. The problem is now of great concern to the industry not just because
of the energy usage, but also due to the environmental problem that arises
from overusage of energy. The government is considering implementing some
regulations for controlling the cooling load in centrally air-conditioned
buildings. The concept of overall thermal-transfer value ( OTTV) is proposed
to be used as a guideline for designing the building envelopes. However,
those equations for calculating the OTTV recommended by the draft design
guide are rather unclear. Many parameters that influence the OTTV equation
have not been studied thoroughly yet. This paper aims at carrying out a
parameterization study on the OTTV equation. The window-to-wall ratio,
shading coefficient, wall absorptance and wall heat capacity are found to
be important parameters. Modification of the equivalent temperature that
appears in the OTTV equation is recommended. Finally, the effect of overhang on the solar load value is also investigated.

1 INTRODUCTION
The concept of using overall thermal transfer value (OTTV) for controlling
a building envelope's design has been proposed in many places, l~ Singapore
is very keen to promote this and some design guides have been developed. 5,6
Malaysia is also interested in this. In view of this, the Hong Kong
government is now considering imposing building energy conservation
standards. The cooling load of the system is definitely related to the electricity
bill. But this depends on the design of the system under the constraints of
land, availability of seawater for cooling, air intake positions, etc. Also
247

248

W.K. Chow, K. T. Chan

the operation schedule would affect the actual energy use. The first step is
to control the heat gain to the building, which depends on the construction
of the building envelope. Heat gain through the building envelope may
account for about 20% of the chiller load for a typical office building in
Hong Kong. Hence, control of the thermal performance of the envelope is
important as part of the overall scheme for building energy effectiveness.
The magnitude of this envelope load varies in individual buildings,
depending on the construction of the envelope and the thermal and physical
properties of the constituent layers. A consultant has been employed by
the government to carry out feasibility studies on controlling the heat
gain from building envelopes using the OTTV concept, and a draft design
handbook has been proposed and distributed to industry for comment.
In addition, preliminary studies have been conducted at the Department of
Building Services Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. A rough
estimate of the OTTV for Hong Kong climates has been reported in
1991, 7 and the concept has been extended further. Because there are four
distinct seasons in Hong Kong, including a very hot and humid summer
but quite a cool and dry winter, the concept of using a summer OTTV is
proposed. 8 A pertinent set of preliminary equations has been developed.
Application of the OTTV concept is intended to estimate the amount
of the building envelope heat gains, based on the building parameters
such as the window-to-wall ratio, U-value, etc. However the significance
of each of these parameters on the OTTV is not the same, and is climate
dependent. When an OTTV limit is adopted as a means of legislative
control on the cooling-energy requirement, the engineer or the architect
is still free to trade off among the building parameters provided the
OTTV limit is not exceeded. Doing this requires a knowledge of the
relative effects of each building parameter on the OTTV as well as on the
cooling load. The parametric analysis is intended to identify the relative
significance of the building parameters which integrate to form the
thermal characteristics of the overall envelope structure. It enables an
analysis of the impact of individual parameters on the heat gain and the
corresponding chiller load to be achieved.
The objective of this paper is to study further how the OTTV would be
changed by varying the building parameters. Six building parameters are
studied: they are the window-to-wall ratio (WWR); the glass-shading
coefficient (SC); the window U-value (Uf); the opaque wall U-value (Uw);
the opaque wall heat capacity (Hw) and the wall surface absorptance (a).
Results of the parametric analysis may be useful in three ways. Firstly,
the degree of relevance of a building parameter for inclusion in the
OTTV equation can be verified, which will provide hints for further
study focusing on the more important elements. Secondly, the correlation

Thermal-transfer value equationfor buildings

249

of the OTTV resulting from the change of the envelope construction with
the corresponding chiller load can be studied, hence verifying the use of
the OTTV for energy control. Thirdly, it provides the architect or the
engineer with an insight into the effect of the individual parameter
contributing to an optimal design or taking any necessary trade-off to
meet with the OTTV limit. Further, since overhangs are an effective
means to cut down the solar load, the ratio of the overhang depth to
window height is also varied to study its effect in the OTTV expressions.
Section 2 reviews the OTTV concepts and the equations derived for
calculating the OTTV for Hong Kong. Section 3 is a parameterization
study in a 40-storey commercial building. The energy simulation tool is
the DOE-2.1D program developed at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory,
with the year 1980 as the Hong Kong Example Weather Year complied
with the CIBSE code. Computation of solar-load reduction for different
overhang depths to window height ratios is discussed in section 4. A
recommended equation, and the justification for using it, to calculate the
OTTV is reported in Section 5.

2 CONCEPT OF THE OTTV A N D REVIEW OF THE

EQUATIONS D E R I V E D
The OTTV 1'2'3'4'9'10 is an estimate on the rate of average heat-transfer
through the building envelope, expressed as the average heat-transfer rate
through the building envelope (QT) divided by the time of operating (top)
of the air-conditioning system and the envelope area:
OTTV =

Total heat gain through the envelope

(Total operating time of air-conditioning system (lop))
envelope area

(1)

Obviously, the OTTV is a function of many parameters: the important

ones include the WWR, SC, Uw, Hw, Uf and a:
OTTV = f ( W W R , SC, Uw, Hw, Uf, a . . . . )

(2)

Because the construction of the roofs and floors are similar in most
buildings, but the walls are not, only the heat transfer through walls is of
interest. The OTTV for the ith external wall of a building can be written
as:

(Awl X U w X TDeq ) + (Aft x Uf x A T ) q- (Aft x SC x SF)

OTTV i =

Aoi

(3)

where Aoi is the total wall area (Aw~+ An); Aw, is the area of opaque wall;

W. K. Chow, K. T. Chan

250

TDeq is the equivalent temperature difference; A n is the area of fenestration; A T is the temperature difference of outdoor and indoor conditions;
SF is the solar factor.
Note that quantities such as TDeq and A T depend implicitly on the parameters in eqn (2). The OTTV of the building with N walls is calculated by:
U

Aoi OTTVi
OTTV = i:1
N

(4)

Z Aoi
i=1

The parameters TDeq, AT and SF which appeared in eqns (2) and (3) are
u n k n o w n quantites that have to be measured. For a rectangular building
with four external walls (N = 4), eqn (3) can be simplified in terms of the
W W R as:
4
OTTV -- TDeq(1 - WWR)Uw + AT(WWR)Uf +

(5)

E Aoi
i=1

For walls of equal area:

A SF[ CF
4

OTTV = TDeq(1 - W W R ) U w + AT(W-WR)Uf +

SC

4A oi

(6)

where CF is the solar correction factor which takes account of the orientation of the facade and the pitch angle of the fenestration component.
It can be further simplified for a building with four faces along the
north, south, east and west directions as:
OTTV

rDeq(1

WWR)Uw + AT(WWR)Uf + SF(WWR)(SC)

(7)

The terms on the left-hand side of eqn (7) are the three components of
heat transfer through the envelope:
Wall heat conduction gain
TDeq(1 - WWR) Uw
=
OTTV
Total heat gain through the envelope

(8)

A T(WWR) Uf
OTTV

Glass heat conduction gain

Total heat gain through the envelope

(9)

SF(WWR)SC
OTTV

Solar radiation gain

Total heat gain through the envelope

(10)

With a building energy simulation program, the total heat-gain through

the envelope, the wall conduction heat gain, the glass conduction heat

Thermal-transfer value equationfor buildings

251

gain and the solar radiation gain can be predicted. Having the OTTV
from eqn (1), the parameters TDeq, AT and SF can be calculated with
eqns (8)-(10).
Although the OTTV is a function of at least six variables, only three,
namely the WWR, Uw and SC are believed to be of importance. The OTTV
is expressed explicitly as a function of those three variables and will be
verified in this paper. An equation has been recommended in Singapore 6
for buildings with wall mass per unit area greater than 195 kg/m 2 based
on their climatic conditions:
I)
OZZV/s(ingapor e -- 10(1 -

WWR)U

w + 5(WWR)Uf

+ 130(WWR)SC

(ll)

This was revised 3 to increase the effect due to the solar radiation as:
OTTV/~gapor e -- 11(1 - WWR)Uw + 4"8(WWR)Uf + 230(WWR)SC

(12)

Another equation has been proposed 1 that considers only the radiation
component:
OTTV/-rur = 215(WWR)SC

(13)

Similar equations have been derived for Hong Kong with the DOE-2.1D
energy simulation programs using local climatic conditions. 7's By taking
the total operating time for the air-conditioning system to be 2780 h, an
equation for calculating OTTV (from eqn (6)) for a design indoor air
temperature at 25.5C is:
OTTV/255c = 1.96(1 - WWR)Uw - 2.62(WWR)Uf+ 143.40(WWR)SC (14)
But in Hong Kong, heat is lost by conduction from the envelopes in cold
months such as January and February. Using the total heat gain for the
whole year to calculate OTTV appears to be inappropriate for Hong Kong.
It has been suggested I~,~2that calculating OTTV in the hot season, including
the months of June, July and August would give more reasonable results.
In doing so, the total operating time of the air-conditioning system would
be 710 h. The equation for calculating OTTV for summer becomes:
OTTVYsummer
5c = 11-4(1 - WWR)Uw + 2.6(WWR)Uf + 204.2(WWR)SC (15)
Results of OTTV are now quite close to those computed from the
equations used for Singapore. This is because only the hot season is
considered and the summer weather in Hong Kong is quite similar to
that of Singapore. Particularly, the agreement is very good for buildings
with high values of WWR.
The design indoor temperature is another important factor. The specified

I4I. K. Chow, K. T. Chan

252

value is 25.5C, but in most cases, 24C is used. 8 An earlier set of OTTV
equations has been derived by taking the indoor temperature as 24C: 8
OTTV/24C = 4.58(1 - WWR)Uw - 2.22(WWR)Uf + 151.60(WWR)SC (16)

The corresponding set of OTTV for the hot season is calculated by using
the data for the months June, July, August and September:
OTTV/24C

summer

= 15.12(1 - W W R ) U w + 5.10(WWR)Uf+ 196.68(WWR)SC (17)

It can be seen that the solar radiation through glass is very similar to the
case of taking the indoor design temperature to be 25-5C, but there is
quite a large difference in the conducive heat-transfer through the wall.
As the solar radiation through glass 13-16 is believed to be an important
mode of heat-transfer through the building envelope, over 70% of the
heat is transferred by means of radiation for a building with a WWR
greater than 0.5. 8 Modern commercial buildings in Hong Kong are now
designed with very high WWR values, and hence including the solar
radiation through the glass will give a good estimate of the OTTV.
Neglecting the conductive parts of eqn (15), a simplified equation is
recommended to calculate the OTTV for modem curtain-walled buildings:
OTTV/recommended =

204.2(WWR)SC

(18)

The above equation is very close to the OTTV expression (i.e. eqn (13))
derived in Ref. 10 for Singapore with only the solar-radiation component.
The total operating time for the air-conditioning system top was taken
to be constant in the above analysis. But as there are four seasons in
Hong Kong, the cooling capacity would be reduced when the temperature inside is higher than outside. So in this study, the total envelope
heat gain is found by summing algebraically the envelope heat-transfer
components for all hours with a net envelope heat gain, and the OTTV is
obtained by averaging the total envelope heat-gain over these hours.

3 P A R A M E T E R I Z A T I O N STUDY
The effect on the heat gain by varying the building envelope design
parameters is studied. The six important parameters are the WWR, SC,
Uw, Hw, Uf and or. Also the effect of overhang on the solar load is studied
with the ratio of the overhang depth to window height being varied. The
heat gain and the energy use of a sample building of 40 storeys is considered. The floor area at each level is 1296 m 2, of which 1071 m 2 is
air-conditioned. This is divided into five zones, as shown in Fig. 1, for

Thermal-transfer value equationfor buildings

40/F

36m

~,

/
15m

',=

.i

~.2m

Fig. 1.

(non air-

36m

conditioned)

/
4.6m--~

,-I

,q

Cole

4.6m

,t--l/F

253

Typical floor plan

Example building.

calculating the cooling load. The total wall area (both opaque and glazed)
for the whole building is 18 432 m 2. A base case of the sample building is
specified by taking the wall construction to be 100 mm concrete with a
25 mm spandrel granite panel to give a U-value (i.e. opaque wall Uw) of
2.338 W/m2K. The value for Uf is 5.136 W/mZK, SC is 0.45, a is 0.58 and
the W W R is 0-5. A parameterization study is undertaken by referring to
this base case. The energy simulation program is the DOE-2.1D and the
year 1980 is taken as the example weather year. It is derived from a concept involving the rejection of years with months that differed significantly from the long-term mean. The design indoor air temperature
is taken to be 25-5C (i.e. 78F as recommended by the ASHRAE).
Predicted results included the energy consumption, load contributions,
interior space condition and many others. But the primary interest lies in
the thermal loading of the buildings. The heat gained from the envelope,
QT, is computed and itemized into the three components, i.e. the wall
conduction heat-gain, Q, glass conduction heat-gain, Qg, and the solarradiation gain, Qrad"
To investigate the effect of OTTV on the chiller load, a variable-airvolume (VAV) system is designed. It involves a variable-speed air handling
unit (AHU) supplying cooled or warmed air to the air-conditioned areas
at each level, having a minimum air flow ratio of 0-4. The heating and
cooling coils of the A H U are not allowed to operate simultaneously.
Return air is pulled back to the A H U with a return air fan and ducting.
The space temperature is controlled with a proportional-type thermostat
with a throttling range of 2C. The system is scheduled to operate from

W. K. Chow, K. T. Chan

254

08:00 to 18:00 on week days, 08:00 to 13:00 on Saturdays and shut down
on Sundays. The internal and ventilation loads are included in the
simulations. The lighting load is taken to be 20 W/m 2, the equipment
power is 5 W/m 2, the occupancy density is 7 m2/person, and the outside
air intake is 7 1/s per person.
Values of the WWR are varied from 0.1 to 0-9. It is assumed that the
windows are distributed uniformly on the four faces along the north,
south, east and west directions in formulating equations for the OTTV.
All the other parameters, such as SC and a are fixed as the base design
values. The effects of the WWR on the solar/temperature coefficients,
OTTV and the chiller load are shown in Table 1.
By changing the W W R back to 0-5 and all other parameters to be the
basic design values, SC is varied from 0.2 to 1.0. The changes of the solar/
temperature coefficients, OTTV and the chiller load are shown in Table 2.
Similarly, a is varied from 0.2 to 0.8 but all the other parameters kept at
the base design values. Variations of the solar and temperature coefficients,
OTTV and the chiller load are shown in Table 3. Further, the thermal
capacity of the wall and the U-value of the opaque wall are also varied.
Their effects on the solar/temperature coefficients, OTTV and chiller load
are shown in Tables 4 and 5. Those data are selected as they are the values for the building materials which are commonly used in Hong Kong.
The chiller load simulation for the base case is taken to be 100%, and is
used as a reference. For all the other cases with changes in the envelope,
the chiller load is expressed as a percentage of the amount of the base
case, called the relative chiller load. This is plotted against the magnitude
of the parameter which is being changed, and is shown in Figs 2-6. It
130
120

llO-

/O//O/

~noo ~o~"
90~,,~o
t

70

I
0.2

I
0,3

I
0.4

I
0.5

I
0.6

I
0.7

I
0.8

0.9

Window-to-wall ratio WWR

F i g . 2.

Effect o f window-to-wall ratio o n chiller load

Thermal-transfer value equation for buildings

255

~d
o~

"7.
H

6
H

r,,,
r-

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..c

,.C

r-

oo
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r-

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c,,i
H

m~
e~

7~

oo

e.
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t1%

oo

q..
0

_o

0
..C
e~

"~

256

Ve'. K. Chow, K. T. Chan

t"q

t"q
~D

tt~
.q

.,~

II

oo

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It

oo
0

t..)

oo

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g
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tt~

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if

Thermal-transfer value equation for buildings

257
eq ~
xl
,,rloo
H

.4

II

.J

,s=

,-7.

;>
F~

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e~

~.

fT.

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taO

.=- *G = ~

= = ~Y=
0

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258

W. K. Chow, K. T. Chan

"13
c~
0

c~

If

"0

[,.

0
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r~

e:.l

~.

e~
0

~6
H
=~

r~
c~

0
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~::ff.)c..q

k.,

O0

Thermal-transfer value equation for buildings

259

q'~

l"q

o~
~b

II

0
II

0
eq

--

>
E-

,A

II

g
o

g
--

~2

II

t"'.-

m~

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e~O

0
r~

d. .=a

2
0

,...,

*d

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.o =o ~ ~
6
:

"=~

II

W . K . Chow, K. T. Chan

260

13o

././././

120 llo -

o / '

100

9o, /

7O
--0.2
Fig. 3.

0.3

0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8

Shading coefficient SC

0.9

1.0

Effect o f shading coefficient on chiller load.

can be seen that the W W R and SC have much larger impacts on the
chiller load than the other parameters. The opaque wall's heat capacity
has a negative effect, which means that an increase in wall heat capacity
will reduce the chiller load because of the thermal storage effect.
The effect of using double- or triple-glazing compared with single pane
in the base case is shown in Fig. 7. Here the shading coefficients for the
three cases are taken to be the same so as to eliminate the effect of solar
radiation gain from this analysis. It should be noted that the window
shading coefficient can be reduced effectively by applying a coating, rather
than by using multiple panes. Contrary to the expectation of many engineers
130
120
~,~ 110
1oo
~9o

70
6~

Fig. 4.

0.3

0.4
0.5
0.6
Wall absorptanee ct

0.7

0.8

Effect o f wall a b s o r p t a n c e o n chiller load.

Thermal-transfer value equationfor buildings

261

,30
,,--,120 V

.o I~100
Jm

t~
>o 90
80

70
an~

wS0
Fig. 5.

I
100

I
I
I
I
I
150
200
250
300
350
Wall heat eapa~ty (kJm-2K -1)

4O0

Effect o f o p a q u e wall h e a t c a p a c i t y o n chiller load.

that double glazing may help to reduce the cooling load, using double
glazing in an office building in Hong Kong will not help in energy
saving, but will increase the year-round chiller load slightly. However the
increase is only minimal, and is less than 1% when compared with the load
resulting from single glazing. This can be explained by the combined
effect of the high thermal load and characteristics of the sub-tropical
climate in Hong Kong. In a typical office building the intensity of internal
load resulting from occupants, lighting and electrical equipment power is
high. Superimposed upon the high internal load is the moderate ambient
temperature in the intermediate seasons and winter months. During the

~ "o c
1001 ~-

0 ~ 0 ~ 0

0 ~ 0

~ ' 0 ~ 0

90

~8o
70

60~5
Fig. 6.

1.0

1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

Opaque wall U-valve (Wm'2K -I)

4.5

Effect o f o p a q u e wall U-value o n chiller load.

IV. K. Chow, K. T. Chan

262

101

98
1

Fig. 7.

2
Number o f glm~g

Effect o f number o f glazing on chiller load.

summer months, double glazing may help reduce the conduction heat
gain and the chiller load. However, when the outdoor temperature is
lower than the ambient temperature and yet there is a net cooling load
because of high internal heat gain, double glazing will reduce conduction
heat loss, hence the net cooling load is larger. This is the situation for
most of the time during the intermediate and winter seasons, and extremely
low ambient temperature is rare. Throughout the whole year, there are
only several tens of operating hours having a net heating load. Consequently
the year-round energy consumption is higher with double glazing.
Relative impacts of various envelope parameters on the chiller load can
be compared by plotting graphs of load against the envelope parameters,
as in Figs 2-6. However, they do not allow direct comparisons because
25
20
1=Window-to-wall ratio
15 -~'~'~'N~] [N'~'N~] 2=Glass shading eoeiticient

I~\\"~! I~\\"~1 3=OpaqeewanU-valee

~'~'~ [~'x.'~ 4:Opaquewall heat capacity

10 -I~\\~ b.\\N~ 5:Wanabsorptance
5
0
-5

Fig. 8.

Parameter sensitivities on chiller load.

Thermal-transfer value equation for buildings

263

of the varying ranges and units of the abscissa. This difficulty can be
avoided with the use of a sensitivity coefficient17 obtained by normalizing
the envelope parameter during the calculation of the slope. The sensitivity
coefficient S; of an envelope parameter i may be defined as:

S,-

(AL/L.)IO0
APi/Pi, n

where AP i is the change in value of the envelope parameter i; Pi.o is the

nominal value of the envelope parameter i; L, is the chiller load in the
base case where all envelope parameters carry their nominal values; AL is
the change in the chiller load corresponding to the change in the envelope
parameter.
The sensitivities of the six envelope parameters are compared in Fig. 8.
The glass shading coefficient has the largest sensitivity, and if that is
taken to be unity, the relative sensitivity of the others in descending
order become: SC = 1, W W R - 0.86, a = 0-19, Uw = 0.12, Uf -- -0.08,
Hw = -0-19.
4 E F F E C T OF O V E R H A N G
We were interested in the effect on the annual total solar radiation load
of changing the ratio of overhang depth to window height. The ratio is

~."~

Ratio of overlmngdepth = D
to windowheight
H

Height of
window. H

.' .~

Fig. 9.

Ratio of overhang depth to window height.

264

I4". K. Chow, K. T. Chan

oo

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

t~

:g

xl

I
oo

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

'q~"5

I
oo

t"q

~..

. m. ~..

. ~.

oo

~.~.~..~..~

I
t~

t3

o
.1

~t~.oo

oo

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

..q

N. ~ ~

t~

O0

~.

I
exl

oO

",10"~t~

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

o
o fJ
oO
l"q

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

oo

o~~-q
61

z ~ ~
o~ ~

..o
o
0

e-~

8.~
e~

"~ "~ ~
= ~

,~

~
0

t:I

..

e.

.<

Thermal-transfer value equation for buildings

265

1.0 II,

~_

o N ~mdNE

g~ 041
0.5

0.3

Fig. 10.

~a~..,~
~"~-~
I
I
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Ratio of overhang depth to window height

1.0

Effect o f o v e r h a n g o n the solar load for fenestration at different orientations.

calculated as in Fig. 9 and the value is varied from 0 to 1 in intervals of

0.1, with the results shown in Table 6.
Unlike the small effect of multiple glazing, the use of overhang is very
effective in reducing the solar gain and hence the chiller load. The reduction
in solar load by an overhang for walls at various orientations is shown in
Fig. 10. In each case the ratio of overhang depth to window height is
varied from 0 to l, and the corresponding solar load is expressed as
a fraction of the amount without overhang. The solar load decreases
as the overhang depth to height ratio increases. When the overhang depth
is half of the window height, there is about 40% reduction in the solar
load. The reduction effect is higher for a wall facing south, south-west
and west, and is lower for a wall facing north and north-east. In spite
of the energy credit, overhang seems not to be preferred by many
architects; in particular it does not fit in well with the curtain-wall design
which is popular in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, it is the role of the
building services engineer to convince the parties involved in a building
project to value the energy cutback potential with the use of overhang
by quantifying the achievable solar load reduction in a given building
design.

5 RECOMMENDATION
As reported in Ref. 8, eqn (14) is recommended to calculate the OTTV
for building envelopes, if the indoor design temperature is taken to be

266

W. K. Chow, K. T. Chan
70

,,"

Paran~ters being changed:

OWWR
60 SC
~'E
+ Uw
x Uf

.~

."
**
os "

~,

o Heat capacity

4O

30

,~-I"o

;o,0

10

oo

O0
Fig. 11.

I
I
I
I
I
I
10
20
30
40
50
60
OTTV from reconuncnded equation(Wm-2)

70

Simulated OTTV versus OTTV from recommended equation.

25.5C. The simulated OTTV, obtained by taking the total envelope heat
gain for all hours with net heat gain and averaging, is plotted against the
OTTV calculated with eqn (14) in Fig. 11. The correlation coefficient
is 0-974, and this high degree of agreement suggests that eqn (14) is an
appropriate simplified equation for the calculation of the OTTV. The
correlation of the calculated OTTV with the annual chiller load is
illustrated in Fig. 12. A linear relationship with correlation coefficient
of 0.996 is obtained. It can be concluded that the OTTV is reliable in
assessing the cooling energy requirement.
10000

,-,9OOO
0 o
0

~8000
o

Oo
O

O0
6OOO

5O0O

Fig. 12.

I0

20

30

40

50

o T r v (Win -2)

60

I
70

80

Chiller load versus OTTV from recommended equation.

Thermal-transfer value equation jbr buildings

267

6 CONCLUSION
The concept of the OTTV is applied to study the cooling load of buildings.
It is found that the W W R , SC and a are of great importance. The
sensitivities of these parameters will provide guidelines to building
designers on the effective means of optimizing the thermal performance
of envelope constructions, and possible trade-off among the parameters
in meeting with any target envelope heat-transfer limit.
While the W W R , SC, Uw and Ur values are included in the OTTV eqn
(14), the effect of wall absorptance and heat capacity are not duly reflected.
The O T T V corresponding to changes in these two parameters have been
omitted in the scatter plot in Fig. 11. Yet it has been demonstrated that
a and H w are even more significant than Uw in assessing the wall conduction cooling load. To account for this, some modification in the form of
additional correction factor to the term TDeq in the OTTV equation
should be made.

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4. Chou, S. K. & Lee, Y. K., A simplified overall thermal transfer value
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268

W.K. Chow, K. T. Chan

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