Why guessing fails
Oversized furnaces and heat pumps short-cycle: they blast, shut off, and never run long enough to mix air or dehumidify, wearing components and wasting energy. Undersized cooling runs flat-out through every Fraser Valley heat wave and still loses. Square-footage rules of thumb miss the things that actually drive load — glazing area, orientation, ceiling height, air sealing — which is why two same-sized homes can need very different equipment.
What we calculate
Room-by-room heating loads at winter design temperature and cooling loads at summer design conditions, using your building's actual envelope: wall and ceiling assemblies, window specifications, infiltration and internal gains. Lower Mainland design temperatures differ meaningfully between coastal Vancouver and the eastern Fraser Valley, and the calculation reflects your location, not a regional average.
What you get
A documented load for the building and each room, the equipment capacity range that fits it, and — where relevant — duct or head-placement implications. It's the document that makes competing quotes comparable: if one contractor proposes double the capacity of another, the load numbers say who's right.
When to order one
Before any equipment replacement or heat pump conversion, when planning an addition or major renovation, for new construction permit requirements, and whenever rooms in an existing home never seem to reach temperature — chronic hot/cold rooms are usually a load and distribution problem, not a thermostat problem.