AC Doctor's online Energy Calculators help you determine the effect that high-efficiency cooling and heating solutions can have on your finances and your environmental footprint. Start by entering your zip code so our calculator can approximate how many hours your HVAC system will run per year, then adjust each of the other fields having a white background. Click the Calculate button to see your potential savings. Change Your Zip Code: <1940 1940-1949 1950-1959 1960-1969 1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-Present <1960 1960-1969 1970-1974 1975-1983 1984-1987 1988-1991 >1992 Summary of Benefits for 1 Central Air Conditioner(s)  Summary of Benefits for Furnance Net life cycle savings (life cycle savings - additional cost) Simple payback of additional cost (years) Life cycle energy saved (kWhMMBtu) Life cycle air pollution reduction (lbs of CO2) Number of cars removed from the road for a year

Air pollution reduction equivalence (acres of forest) Savings as a percent of retail price Annual and Life Cycle Costs and Savings for 1 Central Air Conditioner(s)  Annual and Life Cycle Costs and Savings for Furnance Savings withHIGH EFFICIENCY UNITWhy You Need HVAC Manual J Load Calculations Would you buy a pair of pants twice your size so you have that extra capacity just in case you might need it? Did you know that most new homes have a similarly ridiculous case of oversizing? Look no further than the HVAC system to find it. That's because HVAC load calculations require time and attention to detail, and most HVAC contractors rely on rules of thumb to determine the sizes of the cooling systems they install. Usually it's based on square footage of conditioned floor area, and contractors in many areas generally use about 500 or 600 square feet per ton as their rule. But every house is different. Even the same house rotated ninety degrees could vary in cooling load by 25% or more.

You may think that having a bigger system is better, but the Texan way doesn't always prevail. In the case of air conditioning, oversized cooling systems result in: A clammy house because they don't run long enough to dehumidify the air Shorter lifetime for the system because it turns on and off frequently (also called short cycling). Since it's so big, it doesn't take long to cool off the house.air handling unit products More expensive to install. carrier home ac unitThat extra size isn't free.how much is a new 5 ton ac unit Another reason to installed right-sized HVAC systems is that the ENERGY STAR new homes program requires no more than 15% oversizing of cooling systems. The correct way to size an air conditioning system is with Manual J, a protocol developed by the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA).

Manual J HVAC load calculations determine how much cooling a house actually needs. It used to be done by engineers with pen, paper, and a slide rule, so you can see why contractors developed rules of thumb. Now it's almost always done with computer programs. Here At Energy Vanguard, we use Right Suite Universal by WrightSoft, shown in the image below. Contact us using the form at right if you'd like more information about how we can help you with your HVAC project. When we do a Manual J HVAC load calculation, we enter all the relevant data, such as the home's orientation, insulation levels, window types, areas of all the surfaces that gain or lose heat, and more. The output of the calculation is how much cooling and heating the house needs in Btu per hour for each room, each zone, and the whole house. What we find is that most newer homes come in no lower than 800 square feet per ton, referring back to the rule of thumb preferred by many contractors. High performance homes can be as high as 1500 or 2000 square feet per ton.