An innovative tool developed by Distributor Corp. of New England (DCNE) promises to streamline the process of calculating home energy performance. The Cool Calc Manual J tool enables contractors to leverage the power of big data to measure a building’s HVAC needs before arriving to the location.
The tool is the result of two years of development by a team at DCNE. Launched earlier this year, Cool Calc is one of only seven products to earn the coveted “Powered by ACCA Manual J” approval for full residential load calculation from the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, and is the only ACCA-approved Manual J calculator available free online. It is fully compliant with ANSI/ACCA 8th Edition Version 2 and was featured at the ComfortTech trade show.
Cool Calc uses advanced geospatial algorithms to process publicly-available Lidar data and Ortho imagery, allowing it to automatically detect a building’s footprint, wall area, ceiling area, floor area and exposures. The software uses a home’s property tax records and location to automatically select the building materials required to meet local building codes during construction. By combining the dimensional data with the material selection, a contractor can perform an ACCA-approved manual J in less than one minute.
A contractor or office administrator can use Cool Calc to perform a preliminary Manual J calculation prior to going out to a job site. They can then refine the results from a mobile phone or tablet right from the home, rather than starting from scratch.
Cool Calc is designed for technicians with varying levels of technical proficiency. The Web-based software uses a responsive design and can be used on any Internet-connected device.