Who We Are

The Hydronics Industry Alliance-Commercial (HIA-C) is a committee of the Radiant Professionals Alliance's hydronic equipment manufacturers and partners operating in North America. Operating under the principle that water is the most efficient and greenest energy transfer medium on the planet, the alliance serves as a resource within the HVAC and Service Water Heating industry. Our mission is to educate, integrate, and communicate the advantages of Hydronic System Solutions.

Among the tools we provide industry is the Building Efficiency System Tool (BEST) that models and compares HVAC systems based on actual system performance data in just minutes, for free.

Building Efficiency System Tool™ 

Version 6.0 Newly Released - Download Now

Check out BEST 6.0

The Hydronics Industry Alliance – Commercial (HIA-C) Committee of the Radiant Professionals Alliance (RPA) has released Version 6.0 of the BEST (Building Efficiency System Tool)™ software.

BEST Functionality

BEST is a quick, easy and reliable way to compare the energy and life cycle costs of up to four HVAC systems at one time. It allows one to evaluate and compare various HVAC system candidates early in the conceptual design phase, before final design and construction, in order to save time and money and complete projects more efficiently.

System Wizard

Convenient drop-down menus make it easy to select equipment and distribution systems to model a system. A Predefined System Wizard with 30 preconfigured systems is available to save time in configuring a system.

Building Types Wizard

Use the Simple Building Types Wizard to allow configuring of predefined systems for 11 different building types.

Newest Improvements

• Updated re-rate of the heating and cooling efficiencies of refrigerant systems based on the results of the DOE ASRAC VRF Working Group investigations of the published AHRI Standard 1230 cooling efficiency IEER ratings for VRF systems. Backup documentation here.
• Added ability to define different settings or parameters for each of the 4 different systems modeled at a time, rather than using the same global default for all the systems. This includes being able to model different efficiencies, head, and static pressures for pumps and fans, different calculated flow rates, and different energy costs for each of the 4 different systems.
• Updated system first costs based on inflation for the 30 different predefined systems. Incorporated export feature of the analysis data to an Excel spreadsheet.

What's BEST for Your Building?

What you input:
  • Location of building
  • Size of building
  • Number of floors
Then select up to four HVAC systems to compare side-by-side.

What the BEST outputs:
  • Installation cost
  • Replacement cost
  • Maintenance cost
  • Monthly energy cost
  • Electrical and fossil fuel consumption costs
  • Total system life cycle cost
  • Cumulative life cycle cost by year
  • System payback time
  • Pump and fan HP
  • System coefficient of performance (COP)
  • Building energy efficiency ratio (BEER)

The BEST delivers accurate, fast, and free efficiency estimates for early HVAC system comparison. Read "Industry Cooperation Produces BEST results" in Radiant Living.

Click to Download

Learn the Truth About HVAC System Cost!

Featured Articles

• Evaluating life cycle cost of various HVAC systems on the basis of energy use, first cost and life expectancy
• Heating System Key to Health Center Efficiency
• Shared Facility Helps Technology Grow
• U.S. DoD Issues Guidance on VRF Systems
• Military explains why “NO VRF"
• High-Efficiency Radiant Cooling

Water-based HVAC Systems Are Naturally: