The phrase “there’s an app for that” is so ubiquitous it’s almost a punchline these days. Yet here’s yet another example of an iPad app that will make service in the field a bit easier, this time for HVAC contractors.
An estimated 300 million tablets will be sold by 2015, so it’s no wonder enterprise apps are growing by leaps and bounds. This week, the Air Conditioning Contractors of America 
announced the launch of ACCA DuctWheel, the trade association’s first iPad app. The software translates ACCA’s Duct Sizing Slide Rule — a popular tool used by contractors to determine the proper sizing of residential duct systems — into an easy-to-use iPad app that streamlines a process that used to require paper, pencil and clunky tools.
The DuctWheel allows contractors and designers to lock the wheel in place, zoom in for easier reading – which will save a few eyes – flip between two wheels for different calculations, and take a screen shot of the wheel in position, something contractors didn’t have the ability to do with old-fashioned tools.
Contractors can use the app to:
- size metal ducts, lined metal ducts duct board airways, and wire helix flexible ducts
- convert round shapes to equivalent rectangles
- correlate available pressure with total effective length and friction rate (Manual D sizing calculations)
- convert velocity into velocity pressure and vice versa
- correct for altitude and temperature
DuctWheel is the only duct sizing app powered by the ACCA’s Manual D, the American National Standards Institute’s standard for residential duct design. But unlike the device contractors have used for years, the app won’t wear out.
The app goes for $19.99 in the Apple iTunes store and works exclusively on iPads running on the iOs version 4.2 or higher.
Here’s a video that breaks down the app’s functionality:
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