HVAC Load Calculation Software: 9 Best Software Solutions To Calculate HVAC Load

The heating, ventilation, and cooling systems, when installed in a house, clean the air and improve its quality. Also, it provides warm or cool air depending on the climate’s needs. 

Many people planning to get an HVAC system to assume that they are simply installing a new one or replacing an older HVAC system.

Well, let’s clarify that the assumption is wrong.

You can’t pick a random HVAC system and install it in your house. If done, it will refrain from giving a good performance and energy efficiency and lasts only for a short time. 

To choose the ideal HVAC system, conducting HVAC load calculation is a must, and if it is done manually, it consumes immense effort and time. This is where the automated HVAC load calculating software steps in.

If you are an HVAC business owner looking for the best HVAC Load Calculation Software, this article has your back. We have listed the five Best Software Solutions To Calculate HVAC Load. Without any ado, now let’s check them out.

What is HVAC Load Calculation Software?

First, understand that the HVAC load calculation is a mathematical process that considers multiple aspects of a house to determine the best size, application, and style of the HVAC system. This calculation ensures maximum energy efficiency while enhancing the home’s comfort. 

In those days, load calculation was a manual task. But with technological advancements, HVAC technicians can quickly calculate the HVAC loads using robust load calculating software. The HVAC load software or calculator determines how much heating and cooling a residential building needs, based on its HVAC design and specifications.

HVAC load calculations consider several specific areas in your house to find the right-sized system:

• Total square footage of the property
• Number of windows, doors, and entryways
• Number of floors & living space
• What exact landscaping outside your house can block the sun from entering the house?
• The duct work condition, size of ductwork, and the vent systems
• Window shades, blinds, or other household window treatments used to keep the sun out

Importance of HVAC Load Calculation Software

Apart from delivering accurate HVAC heat load calculation or cooling load calculation, the HVAC load calculator also offers other benefits.

This software helps you to pick the right-sized HVAC system that will bring high comfort and efficiency to your home. So, when you invest in the right-sized systems, it consumes less energy every day meanwhile producing excellent results. It also impacts your energy bills and helps you save more using energy audits.

HVAC load calculation allows HVAC service providers to detect any critical issues beforehand and fix them before they affect your overall energy saving and comfort.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that heating and cooling systems are the largest residential electricity consumers. If the right size equipment is not installed, it may easily reflect on your energy bills.

So it is crucial to calculate the load properly before installing the HVAC systems. Otherwise, you will end up shedding your cash for a larger unit or smaller unit and face issues over time.

Detail Review of Top 9 Software to Calculate HVAC Load

1. HeatCAD

HeatCAD is a drawing-based software that delivers fast and accurate load calculations for residential heating and cooling loads.

This robust HeatCAD HVAC load calculation software comes in two editions: Professional Edition and MJ8. 

The professional edition of HeatCAD supports ASHRAE and CSA residential heat loss calculations. Meanwhile, the MJ8 edition supports ACCA-approved manual J calculations for residential cooling and heating loads.

Apart from delivering HVAC calculations, this software gives advanced design features, including integrated load calculations, 3D CAD views, and automatic detection of unheated surfaces.

Professional edition:

Creates floor plan drawings quickly using the predefined rooms, doors, windows, and other objects. 

You can also import existing AutoCAD, PDF, or scanned drawings to use as a template.

Calculates automated heat loss as you draw using ASHRAE and CSA residential heat loss calculations

Here, the files are compatible with LoopCAD® for radiant designs and 3D drawing views. 

MJ8 Edition:

This includes all features in Professional Edition, plus the ACCA-Approved Manual J residential and cooling load calculations.

Some notable features of both software editions are

• Performs room-by-room residential heating and cooling loads calculation while you draw.
• Enhanced New Project Wizard makes the project setup easier.
• It is easy to learn, and no previous CAD experience is required. 
• Free program updates and technical support are available with the active subscription.
• You can get an online help file and a PDF user’s guide.

2. EDS HVAC

If you want to close more sales, consider investing in the right HVAC load calculator and give the best results. 

Energy Design Systems (EDS), an HVAC software company, delivers two amazing tools: the HVAC load calculator and the Home Auditor. 

The EDS HVAC load calculator is among the easiest and the most accurate residential heat loss and heat gain load calculators in the market. 

This software helps find the best size, application, and type of HVAC system for a house in under five minutes. This is done by utilizing the data from Zillow, Google Earth, and other real estate databases combined with a complex series of algorithms and equations. 

With this HVAC load calculator, you can get accurate load calculations. Thus, you can minimize operating and equipment costs, enhance equipment longevity and improve the health and comfort of your house by installing the right equipment.

Some notable features of this load calculation software are

• User-friendly interface: The load calculations are displayed in a clear format.
• Helps transform your HVAC business: Allows simplifying the HVAC business workflow.
• Software updates: Get all software upgrades for free with your subscription.
• Customer support: You get 24/7 customer and tech support.
• Secure and reliable website: The website has 99.96% uptime. So you can get accurate HVAC calculations anytime, anywhere using the website.

3. ServiceTitan

ServiceTitan has provided reliable solutions to level up the HVAC business. Over 100,000 professionals currently trust it as it has incorporated the best practices to streamline business tasks in the field service industry.

It consists of various software to help smooth running of the HVAC business, and its free HVAC load calculator software is one such thing.

ServiceTitan HVAC Calculator is designed to help you find the ideal HVAC equipment for your house. This free online calculator quickly determines the amount of cooling and heating a residential building needs concerning its design, specifications, and building code requirements.

The load calculations indicate the amount of BTUs required for sufficient heating and cooling. 

How does the ServiceTitan HVAC Calculator work?

You can get an estimated HVAC load calculation by choosing the multiple options in the HVAC calculator tool. 

The requirements include

• Where is the house located?
• What is the square footage? (SQFT)
• What is the ceiling height? (FT)
• How would you rate the insulation?
• How much sunlight does it get?
• How many windows does it have?
• Are the doors and windows well sealed?
• Does the house have these rooms? (Glassed-in room & Kitchen)
• How many people live there?
• Extra Device Heat Wattage (W)

When you enter the above requirements correctly, you can get an idea about the calculation. To get an accurate HVAC load value, one must adopt the Manual J residential calculation technique designed by ACCA – Air Conditioning Contractors of America. Though this method requires time, energy, and money, the result is worth it.

4. Area Cooling Solutions

Area Cooling Solutions, an HVAC and refrigeration company, consistently provides smart solutions for a green future. With over 10 years of experience in inverter driver applications, remote control, and preventive maintenance, this company also offers robust calculation software. 

This software allows you to select their products based on your needs. You can quickly choose your ideal equipment from compressors or condensing units based on the cooling capacity or a specific product line. So this simplifies the selection process and helps you find your exact need.

How does the HVAC load calculation software work here?

Step 1: Select search for compressors or condensing units

There are many heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment listed on the website. Click on the search option and look for your ideal equipment. You will find the details for each product.

Step 2: Search forms based on Capacity or Model/Unit

You can choose the ideal air conditioning equipment and then look for the forms based on capacity or model.

Step 3: Fill in the chosen form

Enter your requirements given in the form. For example, you can enter the condensing unit, application name, and capacity based on your need.

Step 4: List of results

The calculator will calculate based on your requirements and list a set of equipment or products. You can now do basic research and choose the ideal HVAC equipment.

5. LoadCalc

LoadCalc is a load calculation software designed based on Manual J calculation. Since the LoadCalc HVAC load calculator uses Manual J calculation, you can get a decent estimate. This easy and quick load calculation software calculates the amount of heating and cooling British Thermal Unit for the whole house or room by room load.

How to use this HVAC load calculator?

Step 1: Select the state and city given on the dashboard. Once the location is chosen, you will get directed to the load calculation page.

Step 2: Select the types of windows, walls, ceiling, floors, doors, etc., for the structure. 

Step 3: Select the basement walls and floors.

Step 4: Choose the shading factors such as window height, overhang, and window top to overhang.

Step 5: Now select the design conditions

After choosing these options, click on the “Go to next step” button. A different page will open where you must add the sq. ft associated with the structure choices. 

You will find a “Help” button in the menu near the middle of the page. Click on it to learn the further instructions and get the HVAC load calculation value. 

6. CoolCalc

CoolCalc is a simple yet effective software to calculate manual J of any given space. This ACCA approved HVAC load calculator has been stuffed with many new features in its recent update.

Version 3.0 has extended its functionalities with third-party plugins like LennoxPros and Google Maps to enhance the user experience.

CoolCalc is so simple, even a user with less or no experience could calculate Manual J easily.

Here are some of the important features of CoolCalc:

• Mobile-friendly design: CoolCalc is designed keeping in mind its usage in a mobile phone along with other devices. You can access this software from your mobile phones seamlessly. It works well on other devices as well.
• Escalated reporting feature: Reporting is one of the important features of CoolCalc. You will get summary reports and detailed load calculation reports to get in-depth analysis.
• User privacy: CoolCalc focuses on data privacy with utmost priority. It makes sure none of your data is leaked and none of your identification information is used by them.
• API and SDK: CoolCalc comes with a full API so you can integrate other websites or applications with it easily. CoolCalc provides a fully functional software development kit (SDK) with an entire framework to customize your style.

Steps to get started:

Step 1:Create an account first. The accounting opening process is quick and simple. All you need to fill in are your name, username, password, and email ID. Then you will get a confirmation email to activate your account.

Step 2: Add your company’s name, address, city, company, and state. If in a hurry, you can skip this step.

Step 3: After logging in, you will land on the homepage where your projects are listed.

Step 4: To create a new project, click on “+” and add location details about your project.

Step 5: Select load type – block loads or room-by-room

Step 6: Then you will be asked to fill in details about the property.

Step 7: You will be asked to add dimensions of the property.

There are 2 ways for the same: By entering data manually and by map tracing.

Step 8: Add all the details about HVAC systems operational in the property and click on “Save”

Step 9: A detailed report of HVAC load calculation will be generated as per the data you entered.

7. Right-J by Wrightsoft

Established in 1986, Right-J is one of the leading residential load calculation software. It is also an ACCA-approved Manual J calculator so you can rely on this software with utmost trust.

All you need to give is data of the space you want to calculate the load for. 

Here are some of the important features of CoolCalc:

• Carry out load calculations in minutes
• Simple and easy-to-use interface
• Compatible with mobile devices, computers, and tablets
• Store your data in cloud storage to access it anytime
• Manage files in Right-Suite Universal

Steps to get started:

Step 1: Fill in all the customer details like contact details, job locations, etc.

Step 2: Draw your building’s footprint dimensions and calculate the block load in just a few steps.

Step 3: Add R-values of your wall, ceiling, and floor. Right-J will instantly calculate the load and show you the results. 

8. Elite Software

Elite is not just an ordinary load calculator, it is more than that. Along with load calculations, it provides you solutions for HVAC duct and pipe sizing, fault current calculations, building energy analysis, and much more.

In a nutshell, along with accurate load calculation, there are 30 other programs offered by Elite Software.

Here are some of the important features of Elite Software:

• Calculate block and room-by-room loads of residential buildings
• Calculate cooling and heating loads for commercial buildings
• Make designs of 13 common HVAC tools
• Make designs of fire sprinkler systems and domestic supply water piping systems
• With zonal cavity calculations design indoor lighting

9. HVAC Load Calculator

HVAC Load Calculator is developed keeping in mind ACCA-approved Manual J guidelines, so you can rely on its calculations. You can carry out load calculations quickly and easily using the HVAC load calculator.

Serving since 1986, this load calculator is compatible with all PCs and mobile phones including all Android and iOS devices.

Here are some of the important features of Elite Software:

• Carry out load calculations of the whole house
• Calculate room-by-room or block loads
• Get cost analysis and calculate ROI
• Check the proper sizing of the duct system
• Compare the system energy consumption

Conclusion

If the HVAC calculations are not carried out before installing the heating and cooling system in the house, you are likely to install an HVAC system of an improper size.

So HVAC load calculation is important. If the HVAC system is larger, it will lead to high running costs. if it is smaller, the system will constantly run to fulfill the cooling needs instead of maintaining a cool temperature. Also, it shortens the lifespan of the system when often overburdened to cool a huge space. 

To get quick and accurate results, investing in the right load calculation software is recommended. We hope that you pick an ideal software from the above-given list.