Hey guys I Got this question this morning and I thought I would do a video on it because it's one of the things that we seem to talk a lot about on our YouTube channel and I see a lot of misinformation about this particular subject across the internet and that is the sizing of an air conditioner. There's a lot of websites that give out rule of thumbs and this many tons of cooling for this many square feet and all these different things. I Would highly caution you against that. If you are a homeowner that's in the market for buying a heating and air system and you are reading things like that, you're trying to figure out how big the system should be.

You're getting different quotes and what's really bad for some of the folks that we help on our website new HVAC guide where we help folks purchase a heating and air conditioner and help them through the process when people are getting multiple quotes from different contractors. I Was just helping somebody the other day that they were literally getting different sizes all over the place I Would highly recommend getting a proper heat load calculation done and we're going to talk about what exactly all the things that are considered when they go through a proper heat load calculation in. but the other thing I would say is even if you have to pay for it. So sometimes there are companies that will do sort of like a quick heat load calculation.

they do this every day and they can get you close and then once it's time to actually do the installation, they'll go even further. I'm not saying that's right or wrong. That's not exactly how we do things at Griffin Air, in case you want to know how we do things. I Make the homeowner get a proper heat load calculation up front and we usually refer them to a third party service.

So that way even if they don't hire us, it's properly being done. But again, getting back to those companies that do it other ways, some of those companies avoid doing a proper heat low calculation for free for the homeowner because it just takes time and they don't want to do all this work for free, right? But I would say if you're a homeowner and you've got someone that can do a heat load calculation a proper one even if you've got to pay for it I think it's money well spent. So let's go through this. What are some of the things that folks consider when they're doing a proper heat load calculation Again, we're not doing rule of thumbs.

We're not doing anything that these websites say you have a certain size home or all these different things that I've read on the internet and things are all over the place. I Was just reading an odd formula on a website just now. What's interesting is sometimes those rule of thumbs can get you close or even right, but you would never know unless you had a proper heat load calculation done. If you moved forward with one of those rule of thumbs and you had the system installed and then started having issues, Well, the damage is done.

Now you've now spent all this money on a system and you're now having humidity issues. You're now having short cycling or inefficiency with the system running. Anyway, let's go through this. What are some of the things that are taken into account when a proper heat load calculation is done when sizing a heating and air system for your home.

The first thing is square footage of the home. And I know you read that on all those websites. And yes, that is taken into account. The bigger the home, the larger the system is going to need to be to heat and cool that home.

In addition to square footage, you also have to take things into account like ceiling height. So we're not just talking about square footage. We're now talking about about cubic footage. How much space is in that home? How much are we going to actually have to heat and cool this space? We've got customers that have ceilings in certain rooms that are ginormous.

They're vaulted ceilings that are like 20 or 30 feet in the air. All that has to be taken into account when doing a proper heat load calculation. I'd like to take a moment to thank a company called Vivore for sending us a recovery machine and a reclaimed tank to try out. We tried them out on a recent job and thought they were very good for the price point that they're offering.

I'll put a link down into the description if you would like to try these products out as well. And now back to heat load calculations. Another thing that will play a role is the location of your home, so there are certain parts of the country that are warmer, certain parts of the country that are colder. All of that has to be taken into account when considering how big a system should be.

and that's one of the problems we're seeing today with this whole electrification push. and all these lawmakers are trying to push more electric type appliances, more heat pumps, and things like that in the home. but you've got certain parts of the country that they need more heating than cooling. So then if they don't do an inverter system and they go heat pump, they need all this heating.

They live in a cold part of the country and have multiple months of the year where it's super cold and they need all this heating capacity. but then come summertime they don't need all this cooling capacity. and so that's one of the things that we're going to see. Technologies come out to try to account for that.

We're already seeing that a little bit, but I think you're going to see it even more. Systems that have the ability like with AI and some of these other Technologies to be able to say hey, I'm located in a really cold climate here or I'm in a really hot climate I need more AC than heat, right? Another thing that's considered is the r value of the insulation. So when they're doing a proper heat load calculation, they're going to decide how much insulation is in the walls, how much insulation is in the ceiling, floors, and so on. That all plays a role.

If you have an older home that has thinner insulation, not as high of an R value, then they've got to account for that. Things like what year was the home built? How is the home built? If it was built in the shade in the middle of a bunch of trees, Or is it built on a cliff and surrounded by a bunch of sunlight? Does it have a bunch of Windows Does it have trees on one side? What side of the house is that on All of these things have to be considered when doing a proper heat load calculation and even if the software you're using. So a lot of these companies use some sort of software. Even if the software doesn't necessarily account for some of these things, you need to consider it when you're actually adding up what the capacities need to be to heat and cool this home.

Another one is the solar heat gain. It's more to it than just how much does the sun hit the house. They've got to consider things like conduction, convection, and radiation. Of course Windows play a role in this.

What parts of the house are being hit by the Sun what times of the day? And obviously, as we said, what part of the country you're in. Another thing they consider is number of human beings in that home. It's not just the square footage, but if you've got a house that's built for more people, or when they're considering even things like churches or places that people congregate, they've all got to account for that when they're doing their proper heat load calculating. And then finally, another thing they have to consider is things in the home that do create heat such as appliances.

or Electronics sometimes when you have a home that maybe it's a super large home and they have two kitchens in the house, they've got to account for that. Maybe they've got an area that they plan to do barbecues, or some sort of indoor entertaining. Maybe they have a pool or jacuzzi, a sauna. Things like that all have to be taken into account when you're doing a proper heat load calculation.

So I'll leave you with this. If you are in the market for heating and air system, you're trying to figure out what size do I need. I'm trying to compare apples to apples I've got companies all over the place again, even if you have to pay for it, get a proper heat load calculation done to that house. Don't go buy these websites to have these rule of thumbs.

None of those websites take into account the things that we just talked about. You've got to consider whoever wrote that, where they're located, and the type of home they live in. That calculation or rule of thumb formula that they threw out there may work for them, but with your circumstances, it could be completely off and again, the damage would be done anyway. Did I miss anything? comment down below I'd love to hear about that or have you had an issue with this in the past? I'd love to hear about that.

Please comment down below. Thanks for watching Hit that subscribe button. We'll see you next time.