Industrial buildings carry loads an office never sees: process equipment, tall spaces, large doors, and rooms ventilated for what happens in them rather than for the people inside. We prepare stamped cooling and heating load calculations and energy code compliance for industrial buildings of any size.

Buildings we work on

Warehouses and distribution centers
Manufacturing and process facilities
Utility and electrical buildings: substations, switchgear buildings and battery rooms (see substation and utility control buildings)
Laboratories, server rooms and telecom shelters

What you get

Room-by-room cooling and heating loads by ASHRAE methods
Equipment and process heat taken from the equipment list, not an allowance
Ventilation and exhaust to the governing code, or to the hazard where one sets it
Air Balance Report
Energy code compliance, demonstrated on performance where the code allows it
A stamped, plan-review-ready document

How industrial buildings differ

Equipment heat. In a plant, an electrical room or a server room, the equipment is often the largest load, larger than the envelope and the people together. It comes from the equipment schedule and the manufacturers' heat data. Where an assumption is unavoidable, it is stated on the output so the reviewer can see what the number rests on.

Ventilation set by what is in the room. Some spaces are ventilated for a hazard, not an occupancy. A battery room is ventilated to keep hydrogen under 1% (25% of its lower flammable limit, IFC 1207.6.1); our free Battery Room Hydrogen Ventilation Calculator sizes it. Other spaces follow the exhaust requirements of the adopted mechanical code, which our Ventilation Rates calculator lists.

Tall spaces and large doors. High bays stratify, and dock and overhead doors let outdoor air in every time they open. Infiltration is worked from the building's actual openings; our Infiltration and Building Pressurization Calculator shows the crack method.

Rooms conditioned for equipment. Electrical rooms, server rooms and telecom shelters are held to the temperature the equipment needs, often all year, so they can need cooling while the rest of the building is heating. In those rooms heating is sized without credit for equipment heat, so the room holds temperature when the equipment is off.

The energy code still applies. An industrial building's envelope, lighting and HVAC are covered by the energy code adopted where it is built. We confirm which provisions apply in the project's jurisdiction before any modeling starts.

Where we have done this work

Utility and switchgear buildings in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Wyoming; the projects are listed on the substation and utility control building page.

Adicot provides the same services in every state it is licensed in. The codes each state has adopted are on our state pages, listed on the services page.