Load calculations are the foundation of every mechanical design. Get them wrong and the equipment is wrong, the ductwork is wrong, and the energy model built on top of them is wrong. We produce stamped load calculations that hold up in plan review.

What you get

Block and room-by-room cooling and heating loads
Ventilation rates to the governing code for the jurisdiction
Equipment sizing recommendations, with the assumptions written down
A stamped, plan-review-ready document

Methodology

The building code governs. The first authority on any project is the state or local building code adopted in that jurisdiction. It sets the design conditions, the ventilation requirements and which standards apply. Where it references an ASHRAE standard, we work to the edition the code references, not the newest one published.

Load calculations. Commercial load calculations follow ASHRAE methods.

Ventilation. Rates follow whatever the adopted code requires. That is commonly ASHRAE Standard 62.1, but not always. Some jurisdictions and occupancies point to a different standard, and specialty work can be governed by something else entirely. The ventilation rate for a utility control enclosure, for instance, is set by the 1% hydrogen concentration limit (25% of hydrogen's lower flammable limit; IEEE 484 and IFC §1207.6.1.1, formerly §608), not by an occupancy table.

Inputs. Envelope assemblies, glazing, occupancy, lighting and equipment loads come off the drawings and the project's code, not from defaults. Where an assumption is unavoidable, it is stated on the output so the reviewer can see exactly what the number rests on.

Project types

Industrial, commercial and multi-family: multifamily buildings, retail, office space, medical suites and outpatient surgery, restaurants, and specialty utility enclosures. Any size project.

Turnaround

Most load calculations are priced instantly and returned within 5 to 10 business days of scope confirmation, with rush turnarounds available when schedules require them. Larger multi-building projects are quoted individually.

Representative projects

Specialty Utility · Millwood, West Virginia

Substation Control Building / Utility Control Enclosure

A control enclosure with little margin on either side: too little ventilation and hydrogen accumulates off the battery bank, too much and the room will not hold temperature. Ventilation was derived from the manufacturer-published gassing rates for the batteries actually specified and sized to the one percent hydrogen limit in IEEE 484 and the International Fire Code, with cooling loads run to ASHRAE methods. Stamped and back in five business days.

Method: ASHRAE
Scope: Cooling + heating load calc
Jurisdiction: West Virginia

Multifamily · Lakewood Ranch, Florida

30-Unit Condominium Using Split System Heat Pumps

Thirty units on split-system heat pumps, which means equipment is selected per unit and a tonnage rounded up once is rounded up thirty times. Loads were run room by room with orientation, glazing and party-wall conditions carried per unit rather than averaged across the building, so corner units were not sized off an interior average.

Scope: Block + room-by-room
Units: 30
Equipment: Split-system heat pumps