A substation control building is small, unoccupied and full of equipment that must stay within its temperature limits in every season. The load is not set by people or lighting. It is set by the heat the equipment gives off, the weather outside the enclosure, and the ventilation the battery bank requires. We prepare stamped cooling and heating load calculations for these buildings, with the ventilation calculation that goes with them.

Buildings we work on

Substation control buildings and control enclosures
Prefabricated and modular electrical houses (E-houses)
Power equipment centers and power distribution centers
Switchgear buildings
Electrical equipment buildings and equipment rooms
Utility buildings with a battery bank

Most are between 300 and 1,500 square feet. Many are built in a factory and shipped to the site complete, and we work directly with the manufacturers who build them.

What you get

Cooling and heating load calculations by ASHRAE methods, with the equipment and lighting heat included
The ventilation rate for the battery area, held to the hydrogen limit
Air Balance Report
A zone map, where the building has more than one zone
Energy code compliance documentation, where the jurisdiction requires it
A stamped document, sealed by a professional engineer licensed in the project's state

How these buildings differ

Ventilation is set by hydrogen, not by occupancy. Batteries give off hydrogen as they charge. The ventilation rate is sized to keep the concentration below 1%, which is 25% of hydrogen's lower flammable limit (IEEE 484 and IFC §1207.6.1.1, formerly §608). We derive it from the gassing rate the manufacturer publishes for the batteries actually specified.

There is little margin on either side. Too little ventilation and hydrogen accumulates. Too much and the room will not hold temperature, because every cubic foot of outdoor air brought in has to be heated or cooled.

The design range is wide. Owner specifications commonly set both a minimum and a maximum room temperature across the full range of outdoor conditions at the site. One specification we worked to required the room to stay at or above 60 °F at −40 °F outdoors and at or below 80 °F at 100 °F outdoors.

Cooling and heating are sized on different loads. Cooling carries the equipment, lighting, envelope and ventilation loads together. Heating is sized on the envelope and ventilation loads alone, with no credit for equipment heat, so the room holds temperature when the equipment is not running.

Capacity follows the calculation. Equipment is matched to the calculated load. Extra capacity is added where the owner's specification calls for redundancy, not as a margin for uncertainty.

Where we have done this work

Adicot is licensed in eleven states and has completed control building and utility building calculations in five of them:

Massachusetts: a substation building in Beverly with ventilation sized to the hydrogen limit, 2025, and a switchgear building in Hanover, 2026
West Virginia: a substation control building in Millwood, 2025, and a utility building in Grant County, 2026
Pennsylvania: energy code compliance for a utility building in Malvern, 2026
Oklahoma: cooling loads for utility buildings in Snyder, 2023
Wyoming: a utility building housing switchgear in Casper, 2023

The codes each state has adopted are on our state pages: Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Turnaround

A control building load calculation is typically stamped and returned within five business days of scope confirmation. Where a project needs a seal in a state we are not yet licensed in, our principal's NCEES Model Law Engineer designation supports a licensure application there, and the schedule runs from the date the license is issued.