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Heating & Cooling Loads4 / 13

Sensible vs Latent Loads

Heating/cooling the air vs dehumidifying.

9 min read ยท Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead


A room might feel uncomfortable at 21 ยฐC and 70% humidity even though the temperature is correct. The problem is latent load โ€” the water vapour in the air. To design an efficient HVAC system, you must control both sensible (temperature) and latent (humidity) loads. They require different strategies.