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- Upcoming Events -
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2009 HVAC Comfortech in Nashville, Tennessee
We're looking forward to the 2009 HVAC Comfortech tradeshow on September 23rd to 26th, 2009 in Nashville, Tennessee.
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- February 2009 -
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2009 RESNET Building Performance Conference
On February 16th-18th, we attended the RESNET Building Performance Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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2009 ACCA Conference & Indoor Air Expo
On February 24th to 26th we were at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas for the ACCA Conference and Indoor Air Expo. This conference is the #1 learning experience for HVACR contractors, because it's designed by contractors, for contractors.
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Rhvac Helps with Manual S Compliance
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Rhvac now includes an option that helps you both achieve and demonstrate compliance with ACCA's HVAC equipment selection publication, Manual S. The System Data window now lets you check a box that says that you in fact did select your equipment according to Manual S, which will add a section to your reports that states that to be the case. That statement on the reports is followed by a concise list of all the design parameters that are needed for selecting equipment using Manual S. You can read more about this feature on Rhvac's information page. |
- January 2009 -
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2009 AHR Expo in Chicago
We're back from the ASHRAE AHR Expo in Chicago, Illinois. We lucked out two ways: 1) the weather was cold (high near 14 degrees) but not as bad as it had been before our arrival, and 2) our expectations for less floor traffic were way too conservative - we generated enough floor sales to rival any typical "good year!" Of course, we Texans still enjoy the occasional snow as it is rare in our hometown, and our Chicagoland hosts were as friendly as ever.
Next year ASHRAE meets in Orlando, Florida. Bring the family for Disneyland when you visit with us about our HVAC software!
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(L to R) John Walsh (Training for the Trades President, Elite Software National Sales Manager/National Trainer), Robert Ford (TFTT Sales & Training, Texas region), Bill Smith (Elite Software President), Don Lewis (TFTT Sales & Training, NC/SC region), Mark Moore (TFTT IT specialist), Benito Flores-Meath (Programmer/Engineer Elite Software)
More photos from our booth at the ASHRAE AHR Expo |
Now Offering HVACR Training Materials
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We're happy to announce that Elite is now offering the excellent line of training DVDs, e-books and other materials by Jim Johnson with Technical Training Associates. The videos are presented as though you’re sitting in a workshop and learning what you need to know, not only from a theory perspective when necessary, but also from a nuts and bolts point-of-view. Click here to learn more. |
- December 2008 -
Chvac Allows Different Indoor Design Conditions for each Zone
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Chvac now lets you enter different indoor design conditions for each zone in the system. Instead of all zones in an air handler having to be at the same indoor temperature, you can now enter a different design temperature for any zones whose indoor conditions vary from those of the air handler, for both summer and winter. When you enter a different indoor temperature for a particular zone, the program calculates the zone loads and airflow requirements based on the temperature specified for the zone. It also determines a new, adjusted indoor temperature to use for the air handler's psychrometric calculations. That new temperature is based on a precise weighted average of all the zone temperatures in the system. Click here to download the update and to start taking advantage of this highly requested feature. |
- October 2008 -
Bill of Materials Officially Released
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Bill of Materials has now been officially released. Download the latest version of Rhvac to get the completed version of this program that lets you easily create a customizable bill of materials for any project. Each of the Rhvac sample project files now include a project bill of materials. And it's now very easy to add the HVAC equipment that you selected for your Rhvac project directly into your project bill of materials. Click here to download this update. |
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IGSHPA Technical Conference and Expo 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee
ur National Sales Manager and Trainer John Walsh attended the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association Technical Conference and Expo 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 1-2.
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IGSHPA is a non-profit, member-driven organization established in 1987 to advance ground source heat pump (GSHP) technology on local, state, national and international levels. |
- September 2008 -
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2008 HVAC Comfortech in Atlanta, Georgia
Considering the down mood of the economy, we were pleasantly surprised that the first day of the show was busier than last year's! It's always a good sign when you get your first break and there's only twenty minutes left in the exhibition session, because you have been busy all that time.
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For Day 2, you'll have to ask John, as I caught an early flight so I could make it home before the airports closed due to Hurricane Ike.
Luckily for Elite Software, Hurricane Ike missed our corporate headquarters by fifty miles. Our neighborhoods had some wind damage and received four inches of rain, but the worst effect was added delays in order shipments due to Houston's shipping hub having to recover from hurricane damage.
As usual, Atlanta was a model of southern hospitality, one that we will look forward to visiting the next time a trade show returns to Georgia's peach.
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- April 2008 -
Bill of Materials First Public Beta Released
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We've just released the first public beta for the Bill of Materials component within Rhvac. When you draw your ductwork using Manual D Ductsize within Rhvac, this new program does an automatic takeoff of the ductwork and gives you a customizable list of parts that you can print out. You can even create different lists of parts to give to different suppliers, for example. To check out this new beta release, simply download and install the latest version of Rhvac, open the "Sample DB MJ8.rhv" project, and click the menu, "Project | Bill of Materials." |
- March 2008 -
New Foam and SIP Roofs and Walls Added to Rhvac
- February 2008 -
Elite Software hires TFTT founder John Walsh as National Sales Manager and National Trainer
Elite Software Development of College Station, TX has announced hiring John Walsh as their National Sales Manager and as their National Trainer.
John Walsh, principal of Training for the Trades (Ft.
Wright, KY), will handle sales and marketing activities for Elite nationally.
In this capacity, John will be responsible for introducing the software
through trade shows, meetings, sales calls to major corporations and other
methods.
“Contractors are not always comfortable with computer software,” says Walsh. “But when they get a chance to actually try the programs in a classroom
or web class setting, they understand how simple and powerful the programs really are. More importantly, they find out how using HVAC software
enhances their productivity and profit line.” |
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Walsh has also been a master distributor and trainer for Elite Software and assisted the company as a beta field tester for new programs.
As National Trainer, Walsh continues a tradition of providing training to the
construction trades. Among other training strengths that he brings to Elite are additional and diverse avenues of training. For example, Walsh
is co-author of "Hit the Load J," a simple, easy to understand book on Elite’s Rhvac Residential Heat Load program, as well as co-author to other publications on
HVAC training.
Welcome to the family, John!
Bio:
John Walsh is a 40 year veteran of the HVAC/R industry. He has been involved in HVAC and refrigeration sales and service, as both a business owner
and a manufacturer’s rep. He was the owner/operator of Walsh Refrigeration on Cape Cod, MA, where he and his crew installed refrigeration units, including
specially designed lobster tanks and environmental chambers, and HVAC systems.
The courses that he has provided include continuing education to HVAC, plumbing and electrical technicians. One of the most popular courses
offered through Training for the Trades is on computerized heat loads. The class is offered on-site as well as through the web. Some of the classes are approved
for continuing education in many states. The web class, which was designed to help technicians receive training when it is most convenient for them, has also
been approved for Continuing Education in many states.
He has also taught in several vo-tech schools in New England, and has taught continuing education courses for the past 14 years. |
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2008 ACCA Annual
Conference and Indoor Air Expo in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ahh! The crisp mountain air, the sound of fresh snow crunching beneath your feet, and the luxury of one of the
country's most beautiful resorts set the scene for ACCA's 40th Annual Meeting.
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Located in Colorado Springs, near the Air Force Academy and NORAD's Cheyenne
Mountain, our rooms in The Broadmoor provided us with a spectacular view of mountains
covered in lush pine trees. Add to that a dusting of snow the first night, and attendees were treated to a delightful winter
scene.
Of course, the real action was in the exhibits inside the convention hall and at the many technical seminars.
Elite Software announced Manual N support for our flagship Commercial Loads program, Chvac, and the
entire booth staff couldn't miss attending the Manual N seminar hosted by Jack Bartell and Ken Watson, now that the new fifth edition Manual N has
been released. We were just too busy to visit some of the technical sessions, but that one was a must, especially since the author, Hank Rutkowski, was present in the audience.
Our next major ACCA tradeshow will be the 41st Annual ACCA Conference at the Fort Worth Convention Center in
Ft. Worth, Texas. The show will be from February 24th to 26th, 2009. Just a short drive from our headquarters, we look forward to the Texas-size
commute and welcoming our guests to some real Texas hospitality, y'all hear? Click here for more details.
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- January 2008 -
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2008 AHR Expo in New York City
New York is sometimes thought to be a cold, unfriendly city, but our
experiences last week during the 2008 ASHRAE show were nothing but positive.
People on the street were polite and helpful (we got lost searching for
Ground Zero and everyone we asked gave us directions), workers at the Jacob
Javits convention center were helpful, and old customers visiting our booth
were generous with their praise and even brought their friends over to start
a new generation of customers.
Recession? Not here! Not only did we have strong on-floor sales and
follow-up phone orders local to New York City and its boroughs and
throughout the continental US, but we had all-time record international
sales from far away countries like Philippines, Colombia, Egypt, Puerto
Rico, Barbados (we volunteered to go install on-site!), Mexico, Brazil,
Venezuela, Slovenija, Ecuador, Russia, and India.
We would like to add that the entire booth staff walked in the frigid cold
from our hotel to Ground Zero. A moment of silence please. Deep and
humbling, and rebuilding was busy late into the night. 'Nuf said.
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New Package Pricing for Rhvac, Drawing Board and Manual D Ductsize
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You can now purchase Rhvac, Drawing Board and Manual D Ductsize together for the discounted package price of $1139 ($1239 when purchased separately). This package is loaded with features. Here are just a few:
- Manual J load calculations
- Manual D duct sizing
- Graphical entry of your floor plan and ductwork
- Single-line duct drawing
- Two-line duct drawing
- Conventional duct designing
- High-velocity duct designing
- Links to EnergyGauge Fla/Res, EnergyGauge USA, Rem/Rate and REScheck
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- November 2007 -
Chvac Gets gbXML Feature
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We've just added deluxe gbXML import and export ability to Chvac. The feature is really robust, in that we give you a lot of control over what happens during the import, including setting default material values, choosing which air handler and group to put imported zones into, and which spaces, surfaces and windows to include. And when you export a gbXML file from Chvac and then import it into AutoCAD MEP 2008, the Properties window will show Chvac's calculated results for both zones and spaces. Check out the new video on the Chvac page to learn more. |
- October 2007 -
Comfortech 2007 in St. Louis, Missouri
We just got back from exhibiting at Comfortech 2007 in St Louis. The exhibit hall was not far from the Gateway Arch, an engineering marvel, and one of the evenings there was a social gathering for guests over at City Museum. As always, we had our share of new friends and old acquaintances visit with us at our booth. Next up: ASHRAE in New York City.
- August 2007 -
Big Improvements to Proposal Maker
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The latest updates for Rhvac and Energy Audit include a lot of big improvements to Proposal Maker, including making it super easy to work with pictures, adding a spell checker and thesaurus, and making important improvements to most of the included templates and example projects. Both native pictures and picture fields are now much easier to resize and move (they have "grab handles" now), and you can now change the position style for any picture from "move with text" to "fixed position on page" and vice-versa. The behavior of picture fields is now much more consistent and predictable. The new spell checker includes a 250,000 word dictionary, and lets you add words to the custom dictionary.
In addition to the actual program enhancements, we've also posted several new instructional videos to help you get started.
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- June 2007 -
Rhvac Built-in Duct Sizing Enhanced
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We've just greatly enhanced the built-in duct sizing included with every purchase of Rhvac, which makes it so you can do a full Manual D duct design within Rhvac itself, without having to purchase additional licenses and draw your ducts with our Drawing Board and Manual D Ductsize programs. The Duct Static Pressure Loss Calculator window can now be fully linked to the airflow of rooms, zones and systems in the Rhvac project. And we've added a new Building Rotation Duct Size Preview window, which shows you the airflow requirements of each room or duct in the project in each of the eight possible rotation angles of the building, as well as the maximum duct size of all rotations. |
- March 2007 -
2007 ACCA Annual Conference and Indoor Air Expo in Orlando, Florida
The weather was great, the location ideal, and contractors swamped us out at ACCA's annual trade show in Orlando. We couldn't have asked for anything better! |
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- January 2007 -
2007 AHR Expo in Dallas, Texas
This year's ASHRAE show was but a short drive from our headquarters in College Station. The weather in Dallas was mild for winter with just a hint of sleet, and spared us any slidin' ice.
Both US and international customers came in waves to view our wares and ask the good questions, keeping all our staff busy well past the closing hour. The end result: we made record sales and many new friends. If this was the off year, we can hardly wait for ASHRAE New York 2008! |
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- October 2006 -
Bill of Materials Announced
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The Bill of Materials program has now been announced. It gives you easy in-place editing of every part in your bill of materials list for the current project, including automatic takeoff of ducts, fittings and registers from ductwork drawn using Manual D Ductsize. |
Manual D Ductsize Released
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The Manual D Ductsize program has now been officially released. Be sure to check out the four new instructional video demos we've posted here to get you up to speed quickly on using this powerful new software. |
- September 2006 -
2006 Comfortech in Baltimore, Maryland
Attendance at the the Comfortech 06 tradeshow in Baltimore, Maryland was good and we enjoyed getting to meet lots of new customers. And as always, we enjoyed talking with many of our old friends too. And we didn't mind being able to enjoy a little bit of rain and cooler temperatures, which was a nice change for us. See you at next year's show.
- March 2006 -
2006 ACCA Conference and Indoor Air Expo
San Jose, California, a small, eco-friendly city, hosted this year's ACCA Annual meeting. As always, we not only met with old and new customers and demoed our wares, but also got to visit with many industry leaders. Next year's ACCA show will be hosted in Orlando Florida, home of Disney World and Epcot.
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- January 2006 -
AHR Expo 2006 in Chicago, Illinois
We're back from ASHRAE in Chicago, and although it snowed the day before we got there, no, we didn't freeze. Chicago was warmer than usual for late January, and the crowds at the show were also warmer than last year. We had a fun time, albeit busy, with many more visitors at our booth, including many old friends. No doubt about it, Chicago is a great place to meet.
Elite Software is looking forward to next year's ASHRAE show in Dallas. C'mon down for a little bit of Texas hospitality!
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Manual D Ductsize Public Beta Released
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Elite Software has released the first public beta of the Manual D Ductsize program. You can read all about this new program, download the functional demo, and watch online video demos of it in action here. |
- September 2005 -
HVAC Comfortech 2005 in Nashville, Tennessee
We enjoyed exhibiting at the HVAC Comfortech meeting in Nashville TN, on September 14-17, 2005 at the Nashville Convention Center.
- May 2005 -
Proposal Maker Program is Released
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Elite Software is proud to announce the release of Proposal Maker, a fast and easy program for creating professional sales proposals and other sales related documents. Proposal Maker has lots of great word processor features like those found in Microsoft Word, but its main advantage is that it creates proposals automatically from equipment selection and cost comparison results obtained from Elite’s Energy Audit and Rhvac programs. |
Electrical CAD Details Package is Added to our Lineup
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Elite Software is proud to announce Electrical CAD Details, a collection of 230 common electrical details in DWG format. Electrical CAD Details are the most complete set of CAD electrical details available on the market today. Unlike other CAD packages which have only details, Electrical CAD Details includes standardized schedules, notes and symbols. |
- March 2005 -
ACCA Conference 2005 in Austin, Texas
Elite Software enjoyed the short trip down to Austin for the 2005 ACCA meeting in March 9-12, 2005. We appreciate all feedback from Elite users, as many great comments and ideas were exchanged there.
If you weren't able to make it by our booth, and would like information on our products, click here, or if you would like to send us your comments and program suggestions, click here. Sure did enjoy sharing some of that good ol' Texas hospitality!
Mark your calendar! The 2006 ACCA Conference & Indoor Air Expo will be held March 28-30, 2006 at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California.
- February 2005 -
Duct Static Pressure Loss Calculator Window Added to Rhvac
Rhvac now includes a Duct Static Pressure Loss Calculator window that calculates duct sizes and the static pressure losses of your duct system. You can either enter your entire duct system, or just enough to calculate the fan static pressure requirement (one single route, or "path"). This unique tool includes a powerful Fitting Selector dialog, which makes it easy to select from hundreds of fittings from ACCA's Manual D.
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If you're still using Rhvac version 6 you can update to version 8 for $195 plus shipping. Check out the new features of version 8. |
AHR 2005 in Orlando, Florida
Elite Software returned back home from the 2005 ASHRAE meeting in Orlando, after a very successful show. With Orlando being the home of Disneyworld, the attendance was outstanding. We met with many old friends and made quite a few new ones.
Mark your calendar - the 2006 AHR Expo will be held January 23-25 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois.
- April 2004 -
Electrical Tools Program is Released
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Elite Software is proud to announce Electrical Tools, a collection of 14 common electrical calculation and data look-up tasks. These tasks include wire sizing, conduit sizing, motor equipment sizing, panel sizing, lighting requirements (in metric or English units), current to power conversion, Ohm's Law calculator, capacitor sizing, voltage drop, short circuit, and the quick look-up of many electrical formulas and conversion factors.
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- February 2004 -
Chvac Version 7 is Released
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