Elite Chvac alternative: when Chvac is enough, and when to move on

What Chvac does well

Elite says Chvac has been an industry leader in commercial load software since 1979, and it's still one of the most affordable commercial load programs you can buy.[1] From Elite's product page:

• Two cooling methods. Chvac runs either ASHRAE Radiant Time Series (RTS) or the older CLTD method, and you can switch a project between them. Elite's pitch for CLTD is that it uses Handbook table values "so that you can verify the results by hand." That's a real advantage when you're training a junior engineer or defending a number to a reviewer.
• 12 months, 24 hours. Elite says Chvac analyzes up to 12 months per calculation and 24 hours per design day, so it can find a peak outside July.
• Four levels of diversified peaks. Room, VAV box (zone), air system, and building, with up to 100 air handlers.
• System-side detail. Supply fan heat, draw-through and blow-through fans, reheat, supply and return duct gains and losses, return air plenums, pretreated outside air, HRV credit, and coil psychrometrics with chilled and hot water flow rates.
• gbXML in and out. Chvac imports gbXML from CAD tools such as AutoCAD MEP and lets you pick default materials, since gbXML files usually arrive without usable U-values.
• Links. Exports to Elite's Energy Audit, EnergyPro, and eQUEST, and feeds Elite's HVAC Solution schematic program.
• Price. Five versions that differ only by room capacity: 2 rooms ($299), 10 rooms ($399), 50 rooms ($599), 100 rooms ($999), and unlimited ($1,499). You can upgrade later by paying the difference.

Elite is still shipping updates. Chvac 8.3 (newsletter dated April 24, 2026) added a paid Weather Data Creator ($149 for existing 8.2 users) that builds monthly design temperatures from 3,033 locations' hourly data at a percentile you choose.[2] The current build on Elite's update list is 8.3.8.[3]

Where Chvac runs out

• Windows only. Elite describes Chvac as a Windows program and doesn't list a browser or Mac version.[4]
• One person per file. Elite doesn't describe several engineers editing a Chvac project at the same time.
• Input is by hand or by drawing. You enter rooms in the Room Data window or draw them in Drawing Board, which Elite sells separately (Chvac includes a two-room demo of it).[1] Elite doesn't describe automatic room detection from a PDF floor plan.
• Ventilation depth. Elite describes "ASHRAE Standard 62 analysis" but doesn't publish which Ventilation Rate Procedure features it covers (Ez, occupant diversity, multiple-zone Ev).
• Standard edition. Elite's page cites ANSI/ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 183-2007. Standard 183-2024 superseded it on March 29, 2024, and Elite's product page doesn't mention the 2024 edition.[1]
• Room-capacity licensing. Cheap to start, but the 50-room version ($599) won't carry a mid-size school or office. Price the unlimited version ($1,499) if you do real commercial work.

What changes when you move from Chvac to HVAKR

Run one recent job in parallel and expect the totals to differ. Check inputs before you call it an error.

• Method. If you were on CLTD, the numbers will move: CLTD and RTS handle thermal mass and radiant delay differently. If you were on Chvac's RTS, the difference should come mostly from inputs (weather percentile, construction mass, schedules). HVAKR searches 288 month-hours for the peak at each space, zone, and system.[5]
• Weather. HVAKR picks the nearest ASHRAE station (2025 data by default for new projects, or 2021), or CIBSE. Cooling defaults to the 0.4% monthly design condition and heating to the 99.6% annual condition; both percentiles are editable.[6] Match whatever percentile you used in Chvac before comparing.
• Construction mass. HVAKR needs a Building CTS Data type (one of the 24 ASHRAE building types) and wall and roof mass data on each assembly. Cooling loads won't compute until the building type is set.[7]
• Schedules. Each HVAKR space type carries one 24-hour schedule that scales people, lighting, and equipment together. Chvac allows up to 10 internal operating load profiles, so if you used separate lighting and equipment profiles, expect to model that differently.[8]
• Setpoints live on the space type. HVAKR ships no default indoor setpoints, and a missing setpoint zeros the related loads. Set them first.[9]

Switching in practice

1. Pick one recent commercial job you ran in Chvac and keep the Chvac report open.
2. Upload the PDF set to HVAKR (or send the spaces from Revit with the add-in). HVAKR AI proposes spaces on each level for you to include or exclude.[10]
3. Rebuild your Chvac master walls, roofs, and glass as HVAKR envelope types with U-value, SHGC, surface absorptance, and mass data. There's no Chvac file import; HVAKR imports PDF and DXF drawings.
4. Assign ASHRAE 62.1 space types, setpoints, and schedules; match the weather station and percentiles.
5. Compare component loads (glass solar, walls, roof, people, lighting, ventilation) line by line, not just totals. Save the project as your template.