Services
Load calcs, HVAC design, and Title 24.
Each package is a fixed fee, quoted from your plans, and Strome Signature is the one we recommend. With any HVAC design, the design package is delivered within 5 business days from your start date and complete plans (10 for a bigger home, an extra system, or a second dwelling; three or more homes, in your proposal). Residential: new homes, additions, and remodels across California, including accessory units built with the main house.
Packages
Strome Signature Recommended
Design, Title 24, and indoor air quality
Drawn sheets, signed and stamped by our founding engineer
One licensed engineer owns your project, from the first load to the stamp.
What's included
Your HVAC design, drawn as mechanical sheets for the permit set and stamped by our founding engineer. Title 24 and the indoor air quality level are designed with it, for new homes and additions. The Title 24 model uses the same loads and the same equipment as the design, and the fresh air, filtration, and smoke mode are designed in, not bolted on later.
Everything in HVAC design + Title 24 below, plus the indoor air quality level: balanced ventilation with an ERV, MERV 13 to 16 filtration, and air sensing with a one-touch smoke mode. Exact scope is in your proposal.
Strome Signature Express
Strome Signature in 3 to 5 business days
The same package as Strome Signature, for new homes and additions on a tight schedule.
The design package is delivered within 3 business days for one home with one system up to 3,000 sq ft, or 5 for a bigger home, an extra system, or a second home or accessory unit. Three or more homes: the schedule is in your proposal.
Days count from your start date, once we have the signed agreement, the first payment, and complete plans. Offered when our calendar has room, and your proposal confirms the days.
HVAC design + Title 24
Manual J, S, and D, with Title 24
One licensed engineer owns your project, from the first load to the stamp.
What's included
Manual J load calc, Manual S equipment selection, Manual D duct design or room airflows for your contractor's layout, ventilation and exhaust, and equipment schedules, plus Title 24 for new homes and additions, run from the same loads and the same equipment. Delivered as redlines on your architect's set. Drawn mechanical sheets come with Strome Signature. Exact scope is in your proposal.
Equipment space and clearances are shown early, so the architect and framers can plan around them. What's in the package
HVAC design only
For remodels, or with your own energy consultant
The same HVAC design, without the Title 24.
What's included
For remodels, and for projects where your own energy consultant prepares the Title 24. We send them our loads, equipment schedule, and duct and ventilation design. Exact scope is in your proposal.
Add to it:Indoor air quality level
Indoor air quality level
Fresh air and filtration, designed in
In Strome Signature, or added to HVAC design only
Some owners want more than the code requires: filtered fresh air ducted to the rooms, higher-rated filters, air sensing, and a smoke mode for wildfire season.
What's included
Balanced ventilation with an energy recovery ventilator (ERV), MERV 13 to MERV 16 filtration, air sensing with a one-touch smoke mode, garage and makeup air details, and our desk review of the readings your installer sends back. It's designed with the HVAC, because each piece changes the loads, the ducts, or the energy model. Exact scope is in your proposal.
Title 24 only
Residential energy compliance
Energy compliance for new homes and additions, with the CBECC-Res model and the CF1R for your permit set.
What's included
Modeled to the California Energy Code in effect for your permit application. On its own when someone else designs the HVAC. With our design, it's part of HVAC design + Title 24 and Strome Signature, and uses the same loads and equipment. More on Title 24
Load calc only
Manual J
A room-by-room Manual J load calculation for each system, with the report for your permit set.
What's included
A good fit when a designer or contractor is handling the rest of the design and needs the loads done right.
Light commercial? Send us your plans and we'd be happy to provide a price.
What's in a full design package.
The redlines show where everything goes, the schedule shows what it is, and the Manual J, S, and D show why.
Final Manual J and S calculations, the equipment schedule, and the Manual D reference carry the engineer's signature and stamp on every job.
- 01
Basis of Design
The narrative. What the system is, how we sized it, what we assumed, and how each dwelling is ventilated, with its whole-house ventilation airflow. Read this first; it explains how the rest fits together. For the owner, architect, and builder.
- 02
HVAC redlines on your set
Outdoor units, fan coils, thermostat locations, registers, and duct routes; exhaust fans with their airflow, plus their duct routes and outside caps, range hood and dryer included; refrigerant line set routes; condensate routes and disposal points; soffits; and service openings. All marked on your own architectural sheets, with the airflow at each register. For the architect to draw from and the contractor to build from. Mechanical sheets instead, when your proposal includes them.
- 03
Equipment schedule
Fan coils, outdoor units, and the Manual S summary with the notes a plan checker reads. PDF, plus the Excel so it drops onto your mechanical sheet.
- 04
Manual J load calculations
The room-by-room load calculation, one report per system. The numbers behind every pick.
- 05
Manual S equipment selection
Each unit's capacity at your design conditions, from the manufacturer's performance data, checked against its load, one per system. The schedule lists each unit's AHRI reference number.
- 06
Manual D reference
The design static and friction rate for each fan coil, and the airflow and register size for every room. The contractor sizes the ducts to these numbers.
- 07
Equipment data
The manufacturer's pages for the exact models: dimensions, fan curves, wiring, sound, electrical. Models that aren't yours are crossed out.
- 08
Inputs to confirm
One page. Every assumption we made, what we used, where it came from, and a column for you to check OK or write the change. Tell us too if the drawings change.
How a full design runs.
Send plans
The architectural set as PDF and a few basics. We reply with a fixed fee and, only if we need them, questions.
Takeoff and load calc
We measure the house from your drawings, run the room-by-room Manual J, and send the inputs sheet for you to confirm.
Equipment and layout
Equipment selected per Manual S from the manufacturer's performance data at your design conditions. Space and clearance reservations go to the architect early, before the layout is final.
Package
Redlines, schedule, Manual D reference, and the Basis of Design, checked against each other before they go out.
Plan check
Questions on our documents come to the engineer who did the work. Revisions to our documents from plan check comments are part of the fee, unless the comment comes from a change by others or a later code change. Those we quote first.
Questions we get.
Doesn't the HVAC sub size the system for free?
Often, yes. What you get from us is a room-by-room Manual J, equipment picked to match it, and space and clearances settled early, with a licensed engineer responsible for the design. The sub still installs it, working from the same numbers as the permit set.
What's the difference between Manual J, S, and D?
Manual J is the room-by-room load calculation: the heating and cooling load of each room at your design conditions. Manual S is the equipment selection: each unit's capacity at those conditions, from the manufacturer's performance data, checked against its load. Manual D is the duct design method: it sizes the ducts so each room gets its design airflow from the static pressure the blower has left after the filter, grilles, and other parts in the air path. In our full design you get each room's airflow and register size, the design static, and the friction rate, and the mechanical contractor sizes and lays out the ducts to them, unless your proposal includes the duct design. All three are ACCA methods.
What kinds of projects do you take?
Residential work in California: new homes, additions, and remodels. For new homes and additions, Strome Signature and HVAC design + Title 24 bring the design and Title 24 together. For remodels, or when you have your own energy consultant, there's HVAC design only. Title 24 and the load calc are packages on their own too.
What do you need to quote a job?
A PDF of the architectural set is enough to start. For Title 24 we also need the window schedule. We reply by email with questions, if any, and a fixed fee.
How is the fee set?
Each package is a fixed fee, quoted from your plans, so you get a number, not an hourly estimate. Exact scope is in your proposal.
Who is responsible for the design?
A licensed California professional engineer, mechanical discipline, is in responsible charge of every set. Final Manual J and S calculations, the equipment schedule, and the Manual D reference carry the engineer's signature and stamp on every job, and with Strome Signature so do the drawn mechanical sheets. Title 24 documents are signed by the documentation author and the responsible designer. On a load calc or Title 24 only job, the HVAC design stays with whoever designs it.
What happens at plan check?
Plan check questions on our documents go straight to the engineer who did the work. Revisions to our documents from plan check comments are part of the fee, unless the comment comes from a change by others or a later code change. Those we quote first.
Do you visit the site or review submittals?
Every HVAC design includes a review of the contractor's duct layout. Site visits, other submittals, and testing and balancing are included only when your proposal says so.
Do you sell or install equipment?
No. Strome designs. Your HVAC contractor buys and installs the equipment, and the size on the schedule comes from the load calc.
Where do you work?
The office is in Southern California, and design and Title 24 work runs across the state. Light commercial? Send us your plans and we'd be happy to provide a price.
What we need from you
- The architectural set, PDF. Plans, elevations, sections, and the window schedule if there is one.
- Wall, roof, and window construction if it's decided. If not, we assume and list it on the inputs sheet.
- Who the mechanical contractor is, if chosen. We'll coordinate the layout with them.
- Equipment preferences, if any. We design to the load first and tell you straight if a preference doesn't fit it.
- About five minutes with the inputs sheet. Check each line OK or write the change. We design to what you confirm, and anything that changes, we update.
Not included, unless your proposal says so
- Mechanical sheets drafted in CAD, except with Strome Signature and Strome Signature Express. Otherwise the design is delivered as redlines on your set for your architect to draft.
- Final duct sizing. The mechanical contractor sizes and lays out the ducts per ACCA Manual D to our airflows and submits them to us for review.
- Construction-phase services beyond the duct layout review (other submittals, site visits, testing and balancing), permits, and inspections.
Not sure which package?
Send the plans, or the square footage if there are no plans yet, and say what you're trying to get through. We'll tell you which one fits and quote it.