PLATFORM AT A GLANCE

An industry-driven, cloud-based energy modelling platform built to integrate with the EnerGuide Rating System ecosystem.
Designed to help streamline Energy Advisors' workflows, and expand their tool belts, helping them:
Gain deeper insights beyond energy performance
Design for lower emissions and affordability
Supports energy efficiency programs
Leveraging the HOT2000 simulation engine to upload, create, edit, simulate, and export HOT2000 files.
Performs CSA F280-12 heat loss and gain calculations for whole-home and room-by-room analyses, verified by HVAC Designers of Canada.
Runs hourly simulations in EnergyPlusTM using the OpenStudio-HPXML and H2k-HPXML workflows.

KEY FEATURES

Upgrade Scenarios

Compare the performance of many different design or retrofit options using our upgrades table. View a wide range of performance metrics, assessing the cost, peak load, emissions, and energy implications of different envelope, mechanical system, and renewable energy measures. Save your favourite upgrade packages, including their capital cost information, so that you or other members of your organization can apply them to different files.

Parametric Analysis

Apply custom or pre-built upgrade options to energy model files and explore thousands of potential pathways to achieving code compliance or meeting other energy efficiency, cost savings, or low-emission goals. Adjust costs on the fly and see how capital costs impact low-cost pathways to meet your design goals. Visualize various performance metrics to help find the best options for your builder and homeowner clients.

Hourly Electrical Loads and EVs

Deploy hourly analytics to assess peak electrical loads, hourly emissions, resiliency measures, and other sub-annual metrics. Look beyond annual energy to assess the cost, emissions, and hourly electrical impact of EVs connected to the home.

Integrated Takeoffs

Includes integrated drawing takeoff features, such as the ability to perform PDF drawing takeoffs, improved geometry inputs, direct pasting of window schedules, and more. These features output directly to HOT2000 components and allow rapid file building.

Reporting

Maximize your client impact by generating informative reports. Available reports include an upgrade package scenario table, F280-12 compliance, and data collection forms. Custom reports are available upon request, and new reports are added regularly.

Embodied Carbon Calculations

Estimate embodied carbon across your model automatically with zero extra setup. Pre-loaded with Canadian industry-average material data, allowing you to customize assembly layers and evaluate high-impact materials. Designed as a starting point for early-stage analysis to help evaluate material emissions before conducting a full professional assessment.

CSA F280 Whole-Home Analysis

Perform verified CSA F280-12 heat loss and heat gain calculations at the whole-home level automatically with every simulation. Produce accurate heat loss and gain estimates with only a few extra steps on top of a typical HOT2000 file.

Advanced simulation and analytical tools to extend your energy models. Unlocked with flexible paid credits, with new features continually in development.

CSA F280 Room-by-Room Analysis

Perform verified CSA F280-12 heat loss and heat gain calculations at the individual room level. Features detailed error reporting to quickly identify setup issues, pre-activation checks to ensure model readiness, and accurate equipment sizing for your design workflows.

EnergyPlus™ Simulations

Run fast, high-resolution hourly performance modelling powered by OpenStudio-HPXML directly from your regular energy models. Volta SNAP automatically converts underlying HOT2000 files into EnergyPlus format in seconds, opening up advanced workflows for operational resilience and electrification scenarios.

Utility Data Analysis

Analyze utility data and compare it directly against your energy models. Bridge the gap between modelled predictions and real-world performance by running demonstrated load analysis right within your project workflow.

HOW IT WORKS

Flexible, Credit-Based Access — No Subscription Required

Pay only when you need advanced capabilities with no recurring monthly fees or locked contracts.

Core Modelling Remains Free

Running HOT2000 simulations and whole-home CSA F280 calculations never require credits.

1 Credit per Model Activation

Permanently unlocks Room-by-Room F280, EnergyPlus Simulations, and Utility Data Analysis for a specific model (includes up to 2,500 parametric runs for your first parametric study).

1 Credit per 2,500 Parametric Runs

Easily scale batch analyses in blocks of 2,500 runs whenever additional design combinations are needed.

HIGHLIGHTS AND CASE STUDIES

Design heat loss and gain from .h2k files

Upload or create HOT2000 files and generate whole-home or room-by-room CSA F280-12 heat loss and heat gain values. Pair this with our upgrade scenario analysis tools to investigate the peak load implications of different design and retrofit options to help reduce the size of your mechanical systems. Easily export F280-12 compliance reports for your energy models. Volta SNAP is a verified software for CSA F280-12 calculations on both a whole-home and room-by-room basis.

Supporting CHBA Programs

Volta SNAP is being used to help perform the required energy modelling, scenario analyses, program administration tasks, and to generate case studies for the hundreds of homes participating in CHBA’s Towards Net Zero Renovations initiative. The Volta SNAP platform has enabled files to easily be shared with CHBA program administrators and helps them track progress throughout the various project phases.

CODE COMPLIANCE

Affordability and Emissions-driven Energy Code Compliance

Use Volta SNAP to assess energy model compliance with the performance path tiers of the National Building Code. Assess other common design metrics like TEDI, MEUI, and EUI. Prepare for future changes to the building code by assessing energy models against operational emissions metrics from the draft proposed code changes. Assess code compliance via the parametric analysis feature to find the lowest-cost pathway to achieving your goals.