SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Carrier, a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp., has introduced its eDesign Suite software tools to help building designers rapidly compare annual energy costs for HVAC designs, enabling the user to configure and calculate the energy impact of alternative HVAC system designs in as little as 15 minutes, according to the company.

Supporting the design of high performance buildings, Carrier said it created the eDesign Suite to help engineers in the early design phase of a project, when rapid evaluation of design alternatives is critical. The Building System Optimizer, a major offering of the eDesign Suite, uses a streamlined user interface and automatic model generation to allow a full model of the building and its HVAC systems to be configured in minutes, said Carrier. A typical building energy analysis requires a large amount of data to describe the building and its HVAC systems. Building System Optimizer asks high-level questions about a building, including size, shape, and use (office, retail, school, etc.), and then applies built-in logic to automatically generate a detailed model.

“The ability to achieve higher levels of energy efficiency is driving engineers to adopt new HVAC systems, equipment, and controls in their building designs,” said Chris Nelson, president, residential and commercial systems, Carrier. “As a leader in innovation and energy-efficient products, Carrier takes its commitment to sustainability a step further with a full software suite that provides users the ability to model new technologies to evaluate energy performance and cost effectiveness — in less time than it takes to finish a cup of coffee.”