Maxwell - Calculator

Just like any other thing man has created, homes have been greatly refined throughout the years in order to create as much comfort as possible. Multiple scenarios and risk factors are taken into consideration when building, with heat being a great concern. What Maxwell – Calculator wants to do is let you determine how much heat you lose or gain according to room and wall specifications.

The application is pretty lightweight and doesn't even require you to go through a setup process. This also means you can keep it on a removable storage device to use on the go, while the computer's health status is kept intact. However, Java Runtime Environment needs to be installed for proper functionality.

Reaching the dashboard is the first step, with all functions and requirement fields in plain sight. If you need details for a business, the application also lets you add info like job name and number, customer, address, notes and issue date. The rest of the space is strictly dedicated to room specifications.

You can keep track of multiple locations, all of them being stored in a drop-down menu to be selected easier later on. Most of your time is spent writing down numerical values that represent areas of windows placed in different zones, skylight area, gross wall, ceiling, door, infiltration, floor, appliance gain, as well as insulation measures for different elements.

It's enough to hit the “calculate” button to have the result generated. Displayed in four separate fields, it indicates zone and total values for gain and loss. Sadly, measurement units used are BTU, which are not the most popular in the SI (International System of Units). This isn't the issue, but rather the lack of options to change it, nor for any other values you fill in.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Maxwell – Calculator comes with good intentions, but it's not quite equipped with all it needs to satisfy the majority of target users. Visuals let you quickly accommodate, while requirement fields are pretty intuitive, as well as result accuracy. However, you'd expect a little more variety in terms of measurement units used, which has the most impact on practicality, having you do a little more research and conversion after feedback is delivered.