ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA., January 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The Hydronic Industry Alliance-Commercial (HIA-C), a committee of the Radiant Professionals Alliance (RPA) of the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), has released Version 6.0 of its Building Efficiency System Tool™ (BEST ), an interactive application for comparing the efficiency of HVAC systems in commercial buildings.
The revised software, available online for free, adds the ability to compare projected costs and energy usage for all HVAC systems and hot water usage in each building based on what is known before spending money on HVAC selection – and water heating systems is issued. and almost all inputs can be customized once the design process begins.
BEST 6.0 can be downloaded from http://forms.iapmo.org/hiac/software_register.aspx.
BEST 6.0 also includes the following improvements:
- Ability to model multiple heating and cooling sources. This allows modeling of all electrical systems with cascaded heat pumps and backup sources.
- Cascaded systems can include:
- Air to water heat pumps (ATW) with water to water boosters (WTW) and boiler backup sources.
- Water to air heat pumps (WTA) with ATW heat pumps and boiler backup sources.
- WTW and WTA heat pumps with hybrid geothermal heat sources.
- Air-to-air heat pumps (ATA) with furnace, boiler, or resistance backup sources
- Multiple types of heating or cooling sources configurable for load sharing.
- Air source heat pumps with the ability to model user-definable ambient temperatures for switching on backup sources or switching off the heat pump.
“BEST is an early modeling tool for screening out HVAC system options when very little information is known about the building,” said Greg Cunniff, PE, director of Applied Solutions for Williams Comfort Products. “With the trend towards all-electric solutions – including cascading heat pump systems – BEST is able to compare these innovative ideas quickly and easily. Legacy modeling software is currently struggling to compare these new ideas.”
When it launched in 2016, BEST solved a long-standing industry problem of being able to accurately compare different types of HVAC systems, all tested to different standards, with different efficiency ratings (EER, IEER, SEER, COP, HSPF). as applied in an actual building.
To learn more about the Hydronic Industry Alliance-Commercial and the Radiant Professionals Alliance, or to join this important advocacy for efficiency, visit www.HIA-C.org and www.radiantpros.org.
Since 1994, the Radiant Professionals Alliance, formerly the Radiant Panel Association, has promoted radiant heating as comfortable, efficient and healthy on behalf of its network of dedicated members who share a desire to advance the understanding and acceptance of radiant and hydronic technology.
SOURCE International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO)
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