8/12/13 Elite Software - Chvac

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Price: $295 - $1495 Chvac - Commercial HVAC Loads Chvac users are also
Version 8 Is Officially Released! interested in...
Download Functional
Demo
Commercial Load Calculations Done Right EnergyPro - Perform
New Features in
Version 8 state-of-the-art energy
Chvac has been an industry leader in commercial load calculation analysis.
Upgrade Pricing software since 1979. Try Elite Software's flagship program today
Screen shots and see why so many professional engineers are choosing Chvac. Get both
Chvac and EnergyPro (which Chvac links to) and you'll have the most powerful,
Sample Reports user-friendly commercial load calculation/energy analysis combo on the market. Ductsize - Design and
Recent Update History analyze complete duct
systems.
Demonstration Limits
Features
HVAC Load Calc Article
Calculates Peak Heating & Cooling Loads
Watch Video Demos Determines Building Tonnage and Room CFM Requirements, and Runout PsyChart - Draw
Duct Sizes printer-friendly psychrometric
Export to charts and analyze complex
Uses either the RTS or CLTD calculation method
EnergyPro
Chvac complies with the ANSI/ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 183—2007 processes.
(Medium
Computes CFM Air Quantities With Psychrometrics
Screen)
Calculates from Manually Entered Data or Directly from Floor Plans
Created with Drawing Board (sold separately)
Imports and exports gbXML files Drawing Board - Draw
Export to floor plans from within Chvac
EnergyPro New! Allows Different Indoor Conditions for each Room
Links with Energy Audit Program and calculate loads from them
(Large
Links with PsyChart program. The PsyChart program can import Chvac automatically.
Screen)
system data directly into its Air Handler Model window.
Links with HVAC Solution program.
gbXML Transfers data to the EnergyPro and eQUEST programs (more on using
eQUEST with Chvac) Refrig - Calculate
Import/Export refrigeration box loads and
Allows 30 Walls, 30 Windows, and 12 Roofs per Room
Automates Compliance with ASHRAE Standard 62 select equipment.
Link with Calculates in both Metric and English Units
HVAC Converts any project from English to Metric units and vice-versa
Solution Allows Simultaneous Infiltration and Ventilation
HVAC CAD Details -
Calculates Runout and Main Trunk Duct Sizes
Expand your CAD drawing
Selects Equipment from ARI/GAMA Databases
library and save hours of
List of Videos Allows Virtually Unlimited Number of Rooms
drawing time.
for all Rooms May be Optionally Grouped Under VAV Boxes
Programs Prints Numerous Color Pie Charts and Bar Graphs
Creates Spreadsheet Output File
Energy Audit -
Overview Analyze building energy
usage and operating costs.
Chvac quickly and accurately calculates the maximum heating and cooling loads
for commercial buildings. The cooling loads can be calculated with either the
CLTD method or the new RTS (Radiant Time Series) method. The program allows
an unlimited number of rooms which can be grouped into as many as 100 air H-Sym - Analyze
handling systems. Chvac automatically looks up all cooling load and correction chilled and hot water HVAC
factors necessary for computing loads. In addition, it can look up outdoor design piping systems..
weather data for over 2000 cities located around the world. There is also provision
for editing the weather data as well as adding data for other cities. Comprehensive
reports list the general project data, detailed room loads, air handler summary
loads, outside air loads, total building loads, building envelope analysis, tonnage HVAC Solution -
requirements, CFM air quantities, chilled water flow rates (if applicable), and Graphically design HVAC
complete psychrometric data with entering and leaving coil conditions. Other systems.
outstanding features include ASHRAE Standard 62 analysis, automatic building
rotation, 360 degree wall orientations, tilted glass, exterior shading, internal
operating load profiles, variable indoor design temperatures, people diversity,
pretreated outside air, seasonal infiltration and ventilation rates, reheat loads,
duct gains and losses, and return air plenums.

Five Versions Available

There are five versions of the Chvac program; 2 room capacity ($295), 10 room
capacity ($395), 50 room capacity ($595), 100 room capacity ($995), and
unlimited capacity ($1495). Keep in mind that a room is a single space, and that
rooms can be grouped into air handling systems which in turn make up the
building. Rooms can optionally be grouped under vav boxes as well (zones). This

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allows Chvac to compute diversified peak loads at four levels in one run of the
program: room, vav box (zone), air system, and total building. The maximum
number of air handling systems allowed for any version is the number of rooms
allowed or 100, whichever is the lesser. Each Chvac version is exactly the same
with the exception of the room capacity and price. However, there is a generous
upgrade policy. If at any time you decide to obtain a version of Chvac with greater
capacity than the original one you obtained, all that is required is to pay the
difference in price between the two versions.

Advanced Features

Chvac contains many, many advanced features. Here are just a few of its
capabilities.

Calculates Peak Heating and Cooling Loads

Calculates Both Heating & Cooling CFM Requirements
Calculates Runout and Main Trunk Duct Sizes
Automates Compliance with ASHRAE Standard 62
Provides Overall Building Envelope Report
Creates Spreadsheet File with Calculated Results
Performs Complete Psychrometric Analysis
Prints Bar Graphs and Exploded Pie Charts
Exterior Shading Handles Overhangs, Fins, & Glass Tilt
Uses Exact ASHRAE RTS or CLTD Procedures
Built-in Design Weather Data for Hundreds of Cities
Analyzes Up to 12 Months Per Calculation
Calculates 24 Hours per Design Day
Allows Unlimited Number of Rooms per Project
Rooms May Be Grouped Under 100 Air Handlers
Rooms May Be Optionally Grouped Under VAV Boxes
Allows 100 Walls, 100 Windows, and 100 Roofs per Room
Allows Simultaneous Infiltration and Ventilation
Allows Different Summer and Winter Air Rates
Allows Different Indoor Conditions for each Room
Allows 20 Master Roof Types, 20 Master Wall Types, 20 Master Partition
Types, and 50 Master Glass Types
Provides a User-Defined Library of Custom Materials
Provides a List of your Favorite Materials
Allows Up to 10 Internal Operating Load Profiles
Allows Full 360 Degree Wall and Glass Orientations
Allows Glass to be titled from 0 to 180 degrees
Allows for Roof and Wall Color Effects
Provision for Both VAV and Constant Volume Systems
Proper Handling of Return Air Plenum Loads
Accounts for People Diversity in Total Building Load
Computes Supply Fan Horsepower and Heat Gains
Accounts for Both Draw-thru and Blow-thru Fans
Calculates Reheat Requirements if Necessary
Computes Supply and Return Duct Gains and Losses
Allows Direct Specification of Supply CFM Quantities
Allows Specification of Minimum Supply Air Quantities
Allows Heating Only, Cooling Only, or Both
Excess Supply Air Can be Handled as Reheat, Reserve Capacity, or by
Adjusting the Leaving Coil Conditions
Leaving Coil Conditions Can be Specified with a Desired Dry Bulb
Temperature or a Relative Humidity
Calculates Chilled and Hot Water Coil Flow Rates
Allows for Pretreated Outside Air
Calculates benefits of Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRV) for heating and
cooling
Allows Heating and Cooling Safety Factors
Lighting & Equipment Watts along with No. of People can be Entered
Directly or on a Per Square Foot Basis
Selects Equipment from the ARI/GAMA Databases
Creates Custom Sales Proposals
Creates Spreadsheet Output File

Calculation Method

Chvac performs cooling calculations using either the CLTD method or the new
RTS (Radiant Time Series) method. The RTS method is described in the latest
edition of the ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals, while the CLTD method is
from earlier editions of the Handbook. The RTS method is especially accurate
because it calculates the delayed effect of radiant heat gains during each of the
past 24 hours in determining the current cooling load. That means, for example,
that the program gives proper consideration to the effect of an external shading
device that shades a window in the morning in a room that peaks in the afternoon.

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The CLTD method, on the other hand, uses exact table values from the Handbook
where possible, which means that you can verify the results by hand. You can
actually switch back and forth between RTS and CLTD for any project. All you
have to do to switch between the two methods is to enter equivalent Master Data
definitions for roofs, walls and glass and then change the Cooling Calculation
Method input to the other method.

Program Input

Chvac is very easy to use and includes a specific "dropdown" help window for
virtually every input, including a list of choices where appropriate. The program
performs extensive checks on the data you enter and alerts you to any problems
that it finds, such as a wall having too much window area, or a leaving coil
temperature for an air handler outside of the expected range.

Five types of data are requested: general project data, outdoor design data,
building material data, air handler data, and specific room data. The general
project data includes the project and client name, designer, building opening and
closing hours, internal operating load schedules, and any desired safety factors.
The outdoor design data includes the summer and winter outdoor design
conditions (automatically looked up for you if a city reference is given) and the
desired ventilation and infiltration rates. The building material data includes the
definition of master building material types for roofs, walls, partitions, glass
sections, and exterior shading. A user defined material library is available for
saving the data on common material types. The air handler data includes the fan
and terminal type, the desired heating and cooling supply air temperatures and
data for duct heat gains and losses. The room data includes the room name, floor
length and width, number of people, equipment watts, lighting watts, external
shading data, and specific roof, wall, partition, floor and glass data.

Program Output

Chvac provides several different types of reports which can be selectively

previewed on screen or printed. The reports are: General Project Data, Air Handler
Input Data, Room Input Data, Detailed Project Room Loads, Air System Room
Summary, Total Building, Air System, and Room Load Profiles, Air System Total
Load Summary, Air System Psychrometric Analysis, Psychrometric Chart,
Overall Building Envelope Report, Pie Charts, Bar Graphs, and the Total Building
Load Summary. Virtually all calculated data can be exported to a comma
delimited text file that you can then import into your favorite spreadsheet program
such as Excel.

Chvac and HVAC Solution Link

The Chvac load calc program calculates a great deal of the data needed to define
a system in the HVAC Solution schematic diagramming program. Traditionally,
this data has simply been transferred using a manual entry process. Now, there
is an automated process whereby HVAC Solution can import all the relevant
Chvac data system by system into the HVAC Solution software such that HVAC
schematic diagrams are automatically generated. See a video demo of this
process here and view more details on HVAC Solution here.

Links to Other Programs

Chvac not only calculates peak heating and cooling loads, it also aids in
selecting HVAC equipment and analyzing building operating costs. Project data
from Chvac can be exported to Elite Software's Energy Audit program as well as
to the eQUEST program (see more info in this paragraph). In the future, we plan
to also provide a link to the Energy Plus program. Export to Energy Audit when
you want to analyze residential and light commercial projects, essentially any
application which uses unitary HVAC equipment. Export to eQUEST when you
want to analyze large commercial projects that require precise modeling of
variable loads, equipment, operating schedules, and control schemes. For just
selecting unitary HVAC equipment, use the built-in Find HVAC Equipment feature
of reading equipment performance databases published by the American
Refrigeration Institute (ARI) and the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association
(GAMA).

Import and Export of gbXML Files

Chvac now lets you import gbXML files from CAD drawing software such as
AutoCAD MEP and many other programs. We give you extensive control over the
import process, including the ability to select which spaces, walls and windows
to include in the import (see screenshot below). If you are familiar with the data
that CAD programs typically write to gbXML files, you know that material
definitions are usually incomplete for purposes of load calculation, since they do
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not usually include data such as wall U-values or roof ASHRAE numbers. So on
the import dialog we let you select the default definitions for each kind of master
material in the project.

Using eQUEST with Chvac for LEED Certification

Using the free eQUEST program with Chvac gives you a complete load
calculation and energy analysis package. First, you enter your project in Chvac
and let it determine your peak loads. Then, you export a ready-to-open eQUEST
project file from Chvac. Then you open that project in eQUEST, and enter any
additional data you want to enter that is specific to eQUEST. Then eQUEST will
let you perform a detailed energy analysis. The eQUEST program can also be
used to perform the calculations required for the energy portion of LEED
certification, as described in an article in the September 2007 ASHRAE Journal
(page 58 and following).

Drawing Board

A functional demo of Drawing Board is built into this version of Chvac. The built-
in demo version of Drawing Board allows you to draw and save floor plans of
unlimited size, but HVAC calculations can only be made for two rooms of the
floor plan.

Update Information

Chvac version 7 users can update to version 8 for a substantial discount off the
full purchase price. See the Upgrade Pricing page for more information.

New Features in Version 8

Chvac version 8 can be installed on the same computer as version 7, and will not
interfere with version 7 at all. There is no problem in having both version 7 and
version 8 on your computer at the same time.

The following new features were added to version 8 that were not in version 7.

Export to EnergyPro. After opening a project, click "File | Export | Export

to EnergyPro." You must have EnergyPro installed for this feature to work.
You can download a limited, functional demo of EnergyPro from here.
Each applicable master data item now has an EnergyPro Code input,
which you can use to map that master item to an EnergyPro material.
Click the button beside any EnergyPro Code input and you'll see an
EnergyPro Material dialog, which lets you select the mapped material from
dropdown lists. There is built-in mapping if you leave an EnergyPro Code
input blank, but the user-defined mapping is easy to do, and is of course
more precise.

Multiple items of equipment cooling loads for each room. Click the
button beside either the Sensible Equipment or Latent Equipment inputs
on the Room Data window and a new Equipment Cooling Loads window
will open. This window lets you enter as many items of sensible and/or
latent equipment loads for each room as you need, each with its own
quantity type, usage factor, operating profile, etc.. Click the button beside
the Item Name column and a new Typical Equipment Cooling Loads dialog
opens. This dialog is filled with sensible and latent load information for
various kinds of equipment listed in various tables in both the 2005 and
2009 ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals.

Multiple items of lighting loads for each room. Click the button beside
the Lighting input on the Room Data window and a new Lighting Loads
window opens. This window lets you create as many individual lighting
load items as you need for each room, each with its own characteristics,
such as Space Fraction, Usage Factor, etc.. Click the button beside the
Description column and a new Typical Lighting Loads dialog opens, which
lets you choose from several lists of lighting items that come from tables
in the 2005 and 2009 ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals.

Load Preview window: Click the menu "Project | Load Preview" to open
this new window. It's similar to the window with the same name in Rhvac,
but this one has over 90 columns of data available. You can choose which
columns to make visible. There is a corresponding Print Preview report.
The Load Preview Layout dialog lets you choose one set of visible columns
for the Load Preview window itself, and another set of columns for the Print
Preview version of it.

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Plenum-Room temperature difference automatic adjustment. When
you enter a return air plenum you can now specify that you want the
program to automatically adjust your entered temperature difference
between the rooms and the plenum until it converges on a solution. You
can select the maximum number of iterations to perform for each plenum,
as well as whether or not to round to the nearest whole number
temperature. You can enter project defaults for these settings on the
Design tab of the General Project Data window, and you can override them
for each plenum on the Plenum Data window.

Pool latent loads. In each room you can now calculate the latent load
due to indoor swimming pools. All you have to do is enter square footage
of the water surface, enter the water temperature, select an activity factor,
and select an airflow velocity. The program will then calculate a latent load
for the swimming pool.

Sloped Ceiling Area Calculator dialog. This dialog lets you enter
dimensions for a room's sloped ceiling, and calculates the resulting area of
the ceiling. The area is copied to the roof's Width input, and the number 1
is copied to the Length input.

Miscellaneous latent gains. On the Air Handler Data window you can
now enter miscellaneous supply and return latent equipment loads. Loads
can be positive or negative, and can occur on either the supply or return
side of the coil.

New Features in Version 7

The following new features were added to version 7 that were not in version 6.

RTS Calculation Method: You can now select to use either the CLTD
method or the new Radiant Time Series (RTS) method for calculating
cooling loads. The RTS method is found in the latest ASHRAE Handbook
of Fundamentals and is very accurate because it calculates the delayed
effect of radiant heat gains during each of the past 24 hours on the current
cooling load. You can easily switch back and forth between the two
methods simply by entering equivalent master roof, wall and glass data on
the Master Data window for both methods.

Easier and Better Glass Definitions: Now you can enter the width and
height dimensions for each window or skylight rather than having to enter
them for the master glass and then figure out the correct quantity to enter
on the Room Data window. The Room Construction value of Light, Medium
or Heavy required for each glass in the CLTD method is now automatically
assigned based on the selection you make for the entire room in the new
Room Type input.

Individual Ground Reflectance Values: You can enter a different

ground reflectance for each component rather than having only one value
for the whole project, which makes the results more accurate because
different exposures around a building are likely to have different ground
reflectances. Because the RTS method requires this input for roofs and
walls, each roof and wall now has a Ground Reflectance input, which
makes it so each skylight and window is automatically assigned a ground
reflectance value that is appropriate for its exposure.

Glass Number of Occurrences: You only have to enter data once for a
window or skylight that occurs multiple times in the same wall or roof.

Floor Slab Coefficient for Each Room: You can now enter the floor slab
coefficient for each room rather than having to use the same value for the
whole project.

Easier to Use Room Data Window: The Room Data window (formerly
"Zone Data") has been redesigned to make it easier to enter all the data.
You can change the number of visible roofs, walls and glass by clicking
the plus and minus buttons next to each group's scrollbar. Pressing Enter
when on the last visible row of a component now makes the components
scroll down by one so you can enter another item of the same type. If the
Type input of a component is set to zero, pressing Enter moves the cursor
to the next group of inputs. All the important data is now on two tabs
instead of three.

More Roofs, Walls and Glass per Room: We've more than doubled the
allowed number of roofs, walls and glass you can enter for a room.

Room Notes: You can save as many notes about a room as you want in
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the new "Notes About This Room" input on the Room Data window.

Easier Weather Data Selection: Both the Weather Database and the
Indoor/Outdoor Design windows now let you select a city from a single
dropdown list that shows all cities in the database.

Easier Weather Database Editing: It is now much easier to edit and add
cities in the redesigned Weather Database window.

Screen shots
Comprehensive Air Handler Data

Runout and Main Trunk Duct Sizing

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Built-in Custom and Favorite Material Lists

Easy Room Data Entry

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All Types of Exterior Shading

Import and Export of gbXML Files

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Drawing Board Window

Chvac includes a Drawing Board window, which operates at the demo level until you purchase a separate license for Drawing Board. The Drawing Board
window enables you to enter your room data by simply drawing the floor plan on the screen. Below is a screen shot showing a floor plan created from within
Chvac.

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