Multi-Family HVAC Load Calculations and Energy Code Compliance

In a multi-family building every decision is repeated. Equipment is selected per unit, so a tonnage rounded up once is rounded up in every unit of that type. We prepare stamped cooling and heating load calculations and energy code compliance for multi-family buildings, with the loads carried unit by unit.

Buildings we work on

• Apartment buildings
• Condominiums
• Townhomes and duplexes
• Mixed-use buildings with apartments and commercial space

Any size, from a single unit to a multi-building development.

What you get

• Room-by-room cooling and heating loads for each unit type
• Ventilation rates to the governing code for the jurisdiction
• A zone map, where the building has more than one zone
• Energy code compliance documentation, in the format the plan reviewer expects
• A stamped, plan-review-ready document

How multi-family buildings differ

Units are not interchangeable. Orientation, glazing and party walls change the load from one unit to the next. A corner unit on the top floor is not an interior unit on the second. We carry those conditions per unit instead of averaging them across the building, so no unit is sized off another's load.

The story count changes the code. Under the energy code, a residential building of three stories or fewer falls under the residential provisions, and one of four stories or more under the commercial provisions. The forms, the software and the requirements differ, so the story count is the first thing we check.

Loads and compliance share their inputs. The envelope and system inputs behind the load calculation are the same ones the energy compliance rests on. Running both together removes a class of discrepancy that plan reviewers look for.

Scale. A development is checked building by building. Nothing clears on assumptions borrowed from the building next door.

Where we have done this work

Condominiums, apartments and townhomes in Lakewood Ranch, Hollywood, Fort Myers, Vero Beach, Miami Beach and Sarasota, Florida, and a mixed-use building with apartments and commercial space in Austin, Texas.

Adicot provides the same services in every state it is licensed in. The codes each state has adopted are on our state pages, starting with Florida, Texas and Massachusetts.