4 Simple Steps to Calculate the Right AC Size for Your Home

When it comes to the size of your home’s AC unit, most homeowners tend to be under the impression that bigger is better, but surprisingly enough, that isn’t always the case. An air conditioning system that is too big can often lead to humidity issues within your home, as the system won’t actually run long enough to pull the moisture out of the air and can waste a great deal of energy, but a system that is too small won’t actually provide you with the level of cooling that you and your family need in your home, leading to discomfort and higher energy bills as your system goes into overdrive in the attempt to cool your home properly. So how do you find the right size AC unit for your home? To help answer that question, our team of skilled Tampa air conditioning contractors have taken the time to put together this short list containing a few simple steps you can take to determine the right size unit for your home.

Measure the Space

Whether you are just looking to cool certain rooms of your home, or the entire thing, the first step in finding the right sized unit to do so is measuring the space that’s going to need cooling. You will want to measure the length and width of each room and hallway in your home, or in the case of a new central AC unit, you can take a look at your mortgage paperwork or your property tax statements which will often have the square footage of your home already listed. For these measurements, you don’t need to include your basement, attic, or your closets.

Calculate Square Footage

If you can’t find your mortgage documents or the like that already have the square footage of your home listed, now is the time to figure it up. Once you have the length and width of each area, multiply the numbers together to find the square footage of each room, then add all of these totals together. This should give you a good idea of the overall square footage of your home.

Determine Cooling Capacity

The rate of how fast an air conditioning unit is able to produce cool air is measured in BTUs per hour, and as a general rule of thumb, you are going to want roughly 30-35 BTUs/hour for each square foot of your home that is going to need cooling since we live in a warm climate.

Have a Professional Come Out to Assist

Even though all of the above tips are a great place to start when determining what size AC unit you are going to need for your home, there are a number of other factors that often go into that calculation to determine with accuracy what kind of capacity your home is going to need. The quality of your insulation, how many people live in your home, as well as the condition of your air ducts are all factors that need to be considered, and when in doubt, the best thing to do is to call in the pros and have them come out and take a look to factor in these considerations and double-check your measurements and calculations to ensure you get what you need from your new AC unit.