500,000 SF Acute-Care Hospital

A complete project walkthrough — project setup, room-by-room load calculations, ASHRAE 170 ventilation, equipment selection, Title 24 compliance, Revit clash detection, and final report. From kickoff to permit submission.

500,000 Square Feet
8 floors Plus 2 below grade
220 rooms ASHRAE 170 spaces
~3,800 tons Peak cooling load
Phase 1

Project Setup & Site Conditions

Create the project from the Project Manager module. Pull design conditions for the site (Sacramento, CA — California Climate Zone 12) directly from the 523-location ASHRAE weather database. Title 24 climate-zone overlay confirms CZ 12 with TDV multipliers loaded.

  • Building envelope: 8 above-grade floors + 2 basement (mechanical / parking)
  • Climate: 99.6% heating 30 °F, 0.4% cooling 100 °F DB / 70 °F MCWB
  • OSHPD compliance flag set — California acute-care imaging
  • ASHRAE 170-2021 occupancy class assigned at floor level
[Screenshot placeholder — project setup wizard with weather dropdown]
Modules used: Project Manager, Weather (523 locations), Title 24 climate zones, ASHRAE 170 occupancy classifier
Phase 2

Room-by-Room Load Calculations

Import the room program from a Revit gbXML export (or build manually in the room manager). 220 rooms classified per ASHRAE 170 Table 7-1: ICUs, ORs, isolation rooms (AII / PE), imaging, exam, lab, pharmacy, sterilization. Each room inherits the correct ACH minimum, OA fraction, and pressure relationship.

Run cooling and heating loads using the ASHRAE Radiant Time Series (RTS) method per Fundamentals Ch. 18. Altitude correction applied. Per-orientation solar with shade-coefficient handling on all curtain wall.

  • OR rooms: 20 ACH, 100% OA, positive pressure, 68 °F ±2 °F
  • AII rooms: 12 ACH, negative pressure, anteroom required
  • Imaging: 6 ACH, 65-75 °F, humidity 30-60%
  • Pharmacy USP 797: ISO 7 cleanroom, 30 ACH, positive cascade
[Screenshot placeholder — load calculation room schedule with ASHRAE 170 cross-check column]
Modules used: engine.py (RTS), ASHRAE 170 ventilation, cleanroom (USP 797 / ISO 14644-1), psychrometrics
Phase 3

System Sizing & Equipment Selection

Auto-generate the system schedule from the room loads. Hospital uses a central chilled water plant (3,800-ton peak, 4 chillers staged) feeding floor-by-floor AHUs with separate OR / AII / general-occupancy AHUs.

Equipment selection pulls correction factors from AHRI 550/590 (chillers) at off-design CHW / CW temperatures, AHRI 340/360 (RTUs / heat pumps), and ANSI Z21.13 altitude derating for boilers. Manufacturer catalog data (Trane, Carrier, JCI, Greenheck) populates the schedule.

  • Central plant: 4 × 1,000 ton centrifugal chillers, N+1 staging
  • Hot water plant: 4 × 4,000 MBH condensing boilers
  • 30 air-handling units (4 OR-only, 6 AII-tracking, 20 general)
  • Energy recovery on every OA branch (sensible + latent wheels)
  • VFD pumps + chillers, primary-secondary CHW, primary-only CW
[Screenshot placeholder — equipment schedule with AHRI correction columns]
Modules used: central plant, chiller selector, boiler selector, AHU coil rating, energy recovery wheel, pump curve calc
Phase 4

Energy Modeling & Title 24 Compliance

Run the 8760-hour annual simulation in the JΔS native engine (Path B) and cross-validate against the bundled EnergyPlus 24.x install. Both engines agree within ±3% on annual EUI.

Generate the Title 24 compliance package via the Path A CBECC wrap. The translator emits a valid .cibd25 XML file containing every space, surface, glazing, HVAC system, and schedule. CBECC-Com 2025.2.1 accepts the input on first run; the proposed design beats the standard budget by 14.2%.

  • Native engine: 8760-hour Path B IRT solver, 6-patch interior radiation
  • Cross-validation against EnergyPlus 24.x (bundled, 283 MB optional install)
  • Auto-populated NRCC-MCH-01-E, MCH-04-E, ENV-01-E forms
  • 4-rotation Appendix G baseline for federal incentive paperwork
  • Unmet hours: zero (within ASHRAE 90.1 G1.2.2 tolerance)
[Screenshot placeholder — energy comparison chart vs Title 24 standard design]
Modules used: energy_simulation.py (Path B), cbecc_wrapper.py (Path A), NRCC form generator, Appendix G PRM, unmet hours tracker
Phase 5

Plumbing, Fire Protection & Electrical

Plumbing system designed against CPC 2022 (California Plumbing Code). Fixture units rolled up via Hunter's Curve. Medical gas distribution per NFPA 99 Level 1. DHW recirculation sized with the proper temperature-cycling logic.

Fire protection: NFPA 13 sprinkler system with hospital quick-response heads, NFPA 14 standpipes (Class I in stairs), NFPA 20 fire pump (1,250 GPM at 100 PSI), NFPA 72 mass-notification audio for code blue. Smoke control per NFPA 92 with stair pressurization and atrium exhaust.

Electrical: NEC service sizing (3-section essential / equipment / life-safety branch per NFPA 99 Article 517), IEEE 1584-2018 arc flash study with PPE labels at every panel, generator sizing for full essential load.

  • 3,400 plumbing fixtures, USP 797 isolation pharmacy DI/RO loop
  • Medical gas: O2, N2O, MA, MV, WAGD, instrument air
  • Fire pump: 1,250 GPM with diesel + electric drive (NFPA 20 redundancy)
  • Generator: 2 × 2.5 MW for full essential branch
  • Arc flash labels: 220 panels, IEEE 1584-2018 VCB / VCBB / HCB
[Screenshot placeholder — arc flash one-line with PPE category labels]
Modules used: plumbing (CPC 2022), medical_gas_sizing, fire_pump (NFPA 20), nfpa_72_fire_alarm, smoke_control (NFPA 92), arc_flash (IEEE 1584-2018), generator_ups
Phase 6

Revit Coordination & Clash Detection

Federate the architectural, structural, and MEP Revit models. Run the JΔS Clash Detection add-in across all four discipline pairs (Mech vs Struct, Mech vs Mech, Plumb vs Plumb, Mech vs Plumb). The BVH broad phase + parallel SAT engine clears the full federated model in under 2 minutes.

Real-time monitor enabled during the coordination phase — clashes are detected within 5 seconds of any model edit and flagged on the live Issues panel. The persistent symbol blacklist excludes the 18 known false-positive families (e.g., custom corner couplings).

  • Federated model: 9.4 GB, ~412,000 elements across 4 disciplines
  • Initial clash count: 4,180 (raw); 1,247 after semantic filter
  • After resolution: 87 (real coordination items requiring DD)
  • 3D / 2D view jump-to-clash for in-context resolution
  • View colorization — color-by-discipline overlay during coordination meetings
[Screenshot placeholder — clash browser with 3D view + result list + color overlay]
Modules used: JS.ClashDetection (Revit add-in), JS.MEPTools (auto-routing, sheet link), JS.DesignSuite (live bidirectional sync)
Phase 7

Construction Administration

Once permit is issued and construction begins, switch to the CA Admin tools for the field phase. Generate RFIs from inside the model, route submittals through the review workflow, capture punchlist items in the field via the offline-capable PWA.

  • 1,400+ submittals tracked with markup history
  • 312 RFIs generated and resolved over 18-month build
  • Field survey app: 4,200 photos geo-tagged to plan locations
  • Daily construction log with weather + manpower data
  • Commissioning manager: 1,800 functional tests scripted
[Screenshot placeholder — punchlist tracker with photo attachments]
Modules used: rfi_manager, submittal_review, punchlist_tracker, daily_log, field_survey_pwa, commissioning_manager

Read the Full Tutorial

The complete step-by-step walkthrough with screenshots, sample input files, and downloadable project shell ships in the documentation bundle.