How Big of an AC Unit Do I Need?

You do not have to break a bank so as to not get fried in the heat of summer, especially if you live in Las Vegas, where Air Conditioning is a fundamental need. If your air conditioning system is faulty and needs repairs or you need a better version, an upgrade, then you must try to be sure about what will satisfy your air conditioning needs first. Your air conditioning needs determine how many systems you will need to buy, and even though it seems absurd considering that you think that like most other products, you can purchase an excess of it. However, it is not for you to decide because the features of your home or office will determine what your air conditioning needs are. To be precise, you must have the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) guidelines under your fingertips.

The temperature in Las Vegas can be so high that you will consider purchasing an extensive air conditioning system. Where you might think you have solved your heat and humidity problem, you have caused another issue altogether. If the air conditioning system is too big, then you will run the risk of damaging it in the long-run because it will keep going on and off.

There is a way to find out what will suit your air conditioning needs. A specialist contractor will only have to do some calculations to ascertain what your needs are. This means that certain features of the building will be considered to get parameters that will decide what your air conditioning needs are. Factors like heat retention and humidity are primarily considered first. How old your building is and the climatic factors of the area where it is situated are also considered.

You can take your own measurements if you want to get an air conditioning system. There are non-traditional ways of calculating this. An example is the use of British Thermal Units (BTU) of measurement, where one unit of air conditioning system can eradicate 12,000 BTUs in sixty minutes. This formula and more are guidelines that you can use to ascertain what your air conditioning needs are. You have to understand that the accuracy of your calculations can not be like that of a professional, but since it will be close, you can build a budget around that.

A building that is often used for commercial purposes will not have the same air conditioning needs as a home or place of residence. The requirements will vary greatly. Commercial buildings tend to have higher tops, more visitors in a short time, and distinct protection from heat. The difference also exists between different types of commercial buildings since some will need more cooling than the others.

The math to calculate the cooling need of your building is relatively simple. You have to sum up all every heat source then times it by every 500 square-foot areas that you want to be cooled. Since more people will visit more commercial buildings, then you have to 380 BTUs to your calculations to cover for every visitor. A window that is facing the sunlight is a source of heat; hence it will contribute 1000 BTUs to your estimates as well. The kitchens, too, are a source of heat, and they will contribute 1200 BTUs to your estimation.

It would be best if you also had the measurement of your building in square-footage. It would help if you had this measurement so you can divide it by 500 and times it by 12,000 BTUs, then the figures gotten from windows and kitchens and foot traffic will be added to the product. The resultant value will inform you of the size of the air conditioning you will need.

Commercial air conditioners are more expensive than the ones installed in residents as the cooling needs of buildings used for commercial purposes are more. You may have to pay double the price of a residential cooling system to cool a retail space. It gets worse if your business produces much heat than average. For a small scale business, you may have to pay between three to four dollars in each square-footing, whereas you may pay up to twenty dollars for a more significant business for each square-footing.

Lesser number of people will visit a residential area when compared to a commercial building. The sources of heat are lower as well as the windows. What all these mean is that you may not have so much heat in a residential area when compared to a commercial space. The calculation for a residential space’s cooling needs you will be safe to assume that one unit of air conditioning system can keep up 400 square feet of space cool. Las Vegas will need about one unit for every 600 square feet for every building.

Aside from the difference in the number of units needed to cool a definite square-footage, there are fewer distinctions in the guidelines that affect choosing a cooling system. As far as Las Vegas is concerned, a 1600 square-foot residence will need about one unit for every 400 to 600 square-feet. Every square-foot will require up to 12,000 BTUs to be eradicated every hour, just like the commercial building.

For assumption sakes, let us consider the least cooling capacity of 400 square feet for every ton of cooling unit, a residence of 1600 square-foot home will need up to 4.0 tons of a cooling system to cool it. This cooling unit will have to remove 4.0 x 12,000 BTUs, which equals 48,000 BTUs in every one hour for your home to be cool. These figures can easily alter if features of your residential building include more than one storey and how it is positioned towards the sun. The numbers could change by at least 0.25%.

For a residence of about 2000 square-feet, your calculations will not differ from that of a 1600 square-feet building. If one unit can cool 400 square-feet by the same math, you will need 5.0 units to cool your entire home. Your air conditioner will have to remove 60,000 BTUs, which is the product of 5.0 and 12,000 BTUs.

Knowing air conditioning basics is vital and important before you start using an ac unit. Consulting an expert before purchasing a cooling system is also a good idea. You cannot rely on your calculations alone, even though it will give an insight into your budget. There are factors a specialist would consider that you may overlook, which would affect the cooling of your residence. A unit of the cooling system supplying too much cold air will be a problem for your building and will not last long.