What Size Air Conditioner Do I Need for My Waco Home?
When it’s time to buy a new air conditioning unit for your Waco, TX home, finding the right fit matters. In order to operate effectively and efficiently, air conditioners need to be sized properly for the home in which they are installed. The first question homeowners ask when looking for a new AC unit is often: “What size air conditioner do I need?” The cooling professionals at Evergreen Heating and Cooling explain why it’s necessary to size air conditioners properly and what factors are involved in determining the correct unit size for a home.
What Does Size Mean When It Comes to an Air Conditioner?
When someone asks, “what size air conditioner do I need?”, they aren’t talking about the physical size of a new cooling unit. Air conditioner sizing refers to the system’s cooling capacity, which is its ability to remove heat from a space.
In the HVAC industry, we use tons, or tonnage, to reflect an air conditioner’s size. A unit’s tonnage represents the amount of heat energy that can be extracted from a home over a one-hour period. Heat energy is expressed in BTUs (British Thermal Units), and 12,000 BTUs is equal to 1 ton of cooling capacity.
Why Is Air Conditioner Sizing So Important?
There are many reasons why it’s important to ask about an air conditioner’s size before purchasing a new cooling unit. Fit matters, too, as a precise fit is needed to maximize the performance and energy efficiency of any air conditioner operating in a home.
The size of the new air conditioner you choose will have a direct impact on temperature control and comfort management in the home, as an air conditioner must be sized appropriately to remove the necessary amount of heat from the space. Air conditioners that are too large or small for the home struggle to manage the household’s cooling needs effectively while inviting additional problems including energy waste, increased wear and tear, higher likelihood of breakdowns, and a great risk of early system failure.
What Size Air Conditioner Do I Need?
Air conditioners come in a range of sizes. For residential central air conditioning units, capacity ranges between 1.5 tons to 5 tons.
To figure out what size AC unit you need, you must determine the home’s cooling load. The cooling load represents the amount of heat that will need to be removed from the living areas to achieve the homeowner’s desired level of cooling comfort. Internal and external means of sensible and latent heat gain must be factored in to accurately measure the home’s cooling load.
Here are the various factors we include to determine the correct size for your new cooling unit.
- Climate zone
- Humidity levels
- Home’s orientation
- Building materials and their R-values
- Windows and doors
- Square footage
- Number of stories
- Number of rooms
- Ceiling heights
- Location of HVAC system
- Duct leakage
- Ventilation
- Building envelope
- Heat-generating appliances
- Lighting
- Occupancy
All of these factors are used to perform a Manual J load calculation, which will tell our cooling professionals the precise cooling load of your home. With this calculation, we are able to assess how much heat must be removed from the space to achieve your desired indoor temperature and determine the appropriate air conditioner size to make it happen.
Air Conditioner Installation in Waco, TX
To determine the right size air conditioner for your home, don’t trust an online calculator to give you the right answer based on your home’s square footage alone! Work with the cooling experts at Evergreen Heating and Cooling to have a complete cooling load calculation performed and find out the perfect air conditioner size for your home.Contact us today to request a quote for air conditioner installation.