Requirements & Resources for HVAC Designers
For a home or apartment to be ENERGY STAR certified, several key design tasks must be completed by an HVAC designer. These requirements are contained in the HVAC Design Report, and include designing a whole-house ventilation system, calculating room-by-room heating and cooling loads, selecting heating and cooling equipment using those loads, and designing a duct system for the selected equipment. To download the HVAC Design Report, visit the ENERGY STAR Residential New Construction Program Requirements page and click on the Single-Family tab for single-family homes requirements or the Multifamily tab for multifamily building requirements. Visit the ENERGY STAR Residential New Construction Policy Record page to learn more about recent program changes. The resources below will help you complete these tasks.
Resources
HVAC and ENERGY STAR Certified Homes (PPT, 16MB, 6min.)
This short recorded presentation was created for HVAC contractors and explains how to become credentialed to work with ENERGY STAR. The presentation also explains how HVAC design, installation and performance are incorporated into the ENERGY STAR program.
HVAC Grouping Assistant (EXCEL, 119KB)
The system design as documented on the HVAC Design Report must fall within certain tolerances for the home to be certified, as defined in Footnote 2 of the HVAC Design Report. This free optional Excel-based assistant helps designers to create groups of options and elevations that meet these tolerances.
To meet the requirements of the program, the outdoor design temperatures used in load calculations must not exceed specified limits. Follow this link to learn more and obtain these temperature limits.
HVAC Design Report Supplement (PDF, 38KB)
The ENERGY STAR Version 3 / 3.1 HVAC Design Report allows designers to provide supplemental documentation with room-by-room and total design airflows in lieu of completing Item 5.5. This supplemental document is permitted, but not required, to be used to document such designs.