Stop guessing. Start scanning. A new way to do Whole home load calculations

If you’ve ever stood in a house trying to size heating or cooling equipment and felt like load calculations were more guesswork than science, you’re not alone and we have good news for you!

HRAI’s new Residential Whole Home Heat Loss & Heat Gain Calculations course takes the classic CSA F280 approach and plugs it into a modern digital workflow using Stride (LiDAR scanning app) and Studio (3D modeling + simulation).

It’s built for HVAC professionals who want to stop guessing system size and start producing fast, defensible whole home load calculations for existing houses.

Why we built this course

The world you work in is changing fast:

  • Electrification & heat pumps – Modern variable capacity systems need accurate sizing to hit their efficiency sweet spot and avoid comfort issues. Oversized equipment short-cycles and can’t control humidity; undersized systems just can’t keep up.
  • Rebates, incentives & programs – More jurisdictions and utilities are asking for verified load calculations to qualify for rebates and energy efficiency programs.
  • Existing homes are messy – Unknown insulation, weird renovations, mystery foundations, air leakage. Retrofit work is where things get tricky.

This course is designed to give you a standardized, digital, CSA F280 based way to deal with all of that without spending hours doing load calcs by hand.

What the course covers

The training is built around the foundations of CSA F280 “Determining the required capacity of residential space heating and cooling appliances” coupled with a full digital workflow using Stride & Studio.

Here’s the journey, in plain language

1. Foundations + On-Site Skills: Understanding the house before the software

We start with the basics of comfort and heat transfer: temperature, humidity, airflow, radiant effects, and the CSA F280 design conditions that guide proper sizing. You’ll see how heat really moves through a home and why elements like foundations, windows, and air leakage affect the load.

Then we blend that with the House as a System approach. You’ll learn how to walk through a home and understand its envelope, mechanical systems, and occupant behaviours and how retrofits can upset that balance. We cover non-invasive ways to identify what’s inside walls, floors, ceilings, and foundations, and how to use clues like age of construction and simple measurements to assign realistic R-values.

This section gives you the knowledge to determine accurate loads reflect reality, not just geometry and shows why “rule of thumb” or “match the old furnace” methods often are not accurate.

2. Scanning + Simulating: Turning the house into data, then into answers

Next, you’ll learn to capture the home using Stride, a mobile LiDAR tool that builds a full 3D model as you walk through the house. We cover how to prep your scan, move from room to room without errors, correct mis-classified walls or windows, and define global assumptions for walls, roofs, windows, and foundations. You’ll also document ventilation systems, ducts in unconditioned spaces, and mechanical/DHW details.

Then you take everything into Studio, the platform that turns the scan into a usable load calculation. You’ll practice navigating a 3D model, fixing missing or incorrect surfaces, adjusting adjacency settings, and assigning the appropriate envelope constructions. You’ll enter ventilation details, so infiltration and ventilation loads align with CSA F280 assumptions. Finally, you’ll generate a whole-home heating and cooling report ready for design decisions or program submissions.

Who this course is for

If any of this sound like you, you’ll get a lot out of it:

  • HVAC contractors & designers who wants to accurately size heating and cooling systems for better occupant comfort.
  • Energy advisors & auditors who want a fast way to produce whole home loads based on CSA F280.
  • Program & utility partners who need a standardized, documented method to support electrification and rebate programs.
  • Salespeople & estimators who want to have real numbers behind the options they’re presenting to homeowners.

The course focuses on residential Part 9 dwellings (single-family, low-rise, townhomes) and whole home calculations for existing homes, not new builds. This digital workflow is not intended for permit submission load calcs for new construction. For room by room design, you’re still looking at HRAI’s full 4 day Residential Heat Loss/Heat Gain course.

At the end of the course, you should be able to produce a standardized whole home heat loss & gain report consistent with CSA F280 design conditions and assumptions and explain your results to a homeowner, colleague, or program reviewer with confidence.

Ready to try a new workflow?

If you’re ready to trade your square foot rules for a fast solid CSA F280 based procedure for load calculations, then this course is for you.

Click here to grab a seat, bring your questions and real world headaches, and we’ll walk through how to turn messy existing homes into clean, defensible load calculations.

For more information contact gshine@hrai.ca  

Back to Newsletters