HVAC Design Barrie: Permit-Ready Mechanical Packages for the City of Barrie Building Department
Barrie will not issue a permit for a new dwelling until the mechanical package is in. Here is exactly what the municipality asks for, what the design temperature is, and what it costs to have it done.
This page covers what a complete HVAC design package for a Barrie building permit actually includes — and why getting the design temperature, portal format, and OBC 2024 requirements right the first time is the only version of this process worth doing. For the heat loss foundation, see our Barrie heat loss and permit guide. For the complete HVAC service, see our HVAC design and mechanical drawings service.
What Barrie actually asks for
From the municipality's own permit checklist:
- Energy efficiency design summary
- Duct design and layout (includes HRV duct layout, if applicable)
- Heat loss and heat gain calculations
- Heat loss and heat gain formula sheet
- Thermal load calculator
- Residential ventilation summary
- Air leakage calculator
- Radiant in-floor heat design (if applicable)
- Hydraulic load calculations (single or multi-residential)
The checklist footnotes these items: "Must meet HRAI-CSA F280-12 or ASHRAE design standards"
Schedule 1: Listed under Other Forms as an alternative to drawings sealed by an architect or engineer.
Verify on the municipality's own page →
Checklists change. Check the current one before you submit — and if the letter you received names a document you have never heard of, send it to us and we will tell you what it is.
The design temperature
Every number in a heat loss calculation depends on the outdoor temperature the house is designed for, and the province sets it — not the designer.
Barrie: -24 °C (-11 °F) — January 2.5% design temperature January 1%: -26 °C · Degree-days below 18 °C: 4,380
Source: Ontario Building Code SB-1 (2024), Table 2 — Climatic Design Data. Basis: listed in SB-1.
A calculation run at the wrong design temperature is wrong by roughly the amount the temperature is wrong by, and it is one of the commonest reasons a reviewer sends a package back. If you are comparing quotes, ask which design temperature the designer is using before you compare anything else.
What each document actually is
| Document | What it is |
|---|---|
| Heat loss and heat gain calculations | The room-by-room load. Everything else is sized off this. |
| Formula sheet | The working behind the numbers, so a reviewer can follow them. |
| Thermal load calculator | The envelope assemblies and areas the loads were built from. |
| Air leakage calculator | The infiltration assumption, stated rather than buried. |
| Residential ventilation summary | The OBC 9.32 ventilation design, on the HRAI summary form. |
| Duct design and layout | Supply and return sizing, register locations, cfm per room. |
| Energy Efficiency Design Summary | How the house meets SB-12, prescriptive or performance. |
| Radiant in-floor design | Loop layout, spacing, manifolds and lengths. |
| Hydraulic load calculations | Flow and head for a hydronic system. |
Who is allowed to sign it
You hire a qualified designer. They complete the Schedule 1 Designer Information Form with their BCIN and take responsibility for the design.
You are the owner, building on your own lot. Ontario Building Code Division C, Article 3.2.5.1.(3)(b)(i) exempts an owner who designs a house they own from the designer qualification requirements. You can file the documents yourself. The calculations still have to be correct — the exemption is about who may design, not about the standard the work has to meet.
Tell us which applies and we will tell you what you need before you pay.
What it costs
| Includes | Price | Turnaround | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat loss and heat gain | Room-by-room loads, worksheet, design conditions, equipment sizing basis, assumptions, seal page | $395 | 48 hours |
| Full mechanical package | The above plus ventilation design, duct design and layout, EEDS, and radiant layout where applicable | $695 | 48 hours |
Forty-eight hours from complete plans and payment. If the building department asks for a correction to something we got wrong, we fix it and reissue at no charge while your application is open.
See a complete sample package →
Common questions
Do I need all of these documents? Not always. A heat loss calculation alone satisfies some permits; a new dwelling with a hydronic system needs close to the full list. Send the plans and we will tell you which.
The department has already asked and my build is held up. That is the most common reason people call. The 48-hour turnaround exists for exactly that.
My HVAC contractor says he will size it. He may be right about the equipment. The building department still needs the documents, and the Code requires equipment capacity to be based on the calculated design heat loss.
I'm adding a basement apartment, not building a house. Different job: no drawings, an existing furnace, and a check that it can carry both units. Here is how that works → The design temperature and the checklist above apply to it just the same.
Does an ICF or high-performance house change the answer? Same procedure, different inputs. The result usually comes out substantially lower, and more of the difference comes from air sealing than from the wall's R-value. We run that comparison on every job.
Start
Send your plans — we'll tell you what you need before you pay →
-24°C. APLI-Formatted. BCIN-Stamped. Complete in 48 Hours.
Upload your Barrie floor plans and tell us the project — new custom home, addition, heat pump conversion, or radiant system. We'll run the CSA F280 load at -24°C, produce the mechanical drawings, MVDS, and Schedule 1, format everything for APLI, and deliver in 48 hours. For full custom builds with ICF construction and all mechanical engineering included, our partner icfhome.ca has been building across Simcoe County since 1995.
- CSA F280 heat loss at -24°C — Barrie design temperature confirmed
- Mechanical drawings formatted to APLI submission standards
- MVDS — HRV/ERV design for OBC 2024 compliance
- Schedule 1 declaration — signed and stamped
- BCIN stamp on every page of every document
- 48-hour delivery — ready to upload to eservices.barrie.ca