I am looking into upgrading heating equipment insulation at my campus and want to know which formula would be best calculate heat loss through a surface and also from uninsulated pipes and this will allow me to estimate the savings from insulation upgrade at my campus.
Using the Fourier’s law for steady-state conduction through a flat wall can help for surface heat loss:
where k is thermal conductivity of the insulation/surface, A is the surface area, ΔT is the temperature difference between inside and outside, and d is insulation/surface thickness. Annual energy savings are then calculated by multiplying Q by operating hours and converting to fuel energy with efficiency factors.
For uninsulated pipes, combined heat loss can be estimated using convective and radiative heat transfer equations:
where h is convective coefficient, ε emissivity, and σ Stefan-Boltzmann constant. Insulation reduces the surface temperature, lowering both convective and radiative components.
Please let me know if this help with your heat loss calculations.