Before you decide to buy a air conditioner, it is vital to know what should be the size of the air conditioner, so that you can get the desired comfort level and at the same time it should also be energy efficient.
Electricity is becoming very expensive and hence it is necessary to see that we do not end up wasting more amount of electrical energy by running air conditioners.
Also, at the same time, if you install a very small central AC, then you may not get enough comfort level in your house and all your investments will fail.
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So, before you place order for Airomania air conditioner, it is better that you call any HVAC professional, who may visit your place and can suggest you a suitable size of air conditioner after taking the measurement of the area.
However, it is essential to understand that the size of air conditioner does not reflect the physical dimension of the air conditioner unit. It is referring to its capacity to keep the area at certain temperature to cool the environment.
The size of air conditioning unit is mentioned as BTU which is British thermal unit and it is indicated in the unit of ton.
1 BTU is equal to the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one-pound of water by 1ᵒF, while 1 Ton is equal to 12,000 BTUs/hour, or amount of energy required melting one ton of ice/day.
Room size calculator for air conditioner
Let us see here another very quick way to find out the AC size based on the square feet area in your house.
First take the measurement of the area and find the square feet area in the home. However, you may exclude all the square footages of attic/basement/garage etc. unless those areas are also falling under your living spaces.
Now take these square feet number and then divide it by the figure 600.
Example: 2,400 square feet/ 600 = 4 tons
In case your house is quite well insulated and also quite energy efficient, then you can make an estimate.
Example: A 2,200 square feet house will be divided by 600 which is 3.6666. So, you may install an AC of 3.5-ton unit.
In case, your home has poor insulation/efficiency then it is best to estimate little higher tonnage. Therefore, In the above example above, you will estimate 4-ton unit for your poorly insulated house of 2,200 square feet.
Heat load calculation for whole house
With this estimate, you can determine amount of cooling required for your house in totality. Multiple factors will be included in this calculation e.g.:
- Heat transfer between the walls
- Number of windows
- Ceiling height
- Insulation type and its R-value
- Number of people present in the home
- Presence of natural shade or sunlight
- Number of appliances generating heat
It will be recommended to do calculation for whole house if you have planned to replace/install new AC unit that will not touch your old ductwork.
