What ton air conditioner do you need for a 2,300 square foot home? According to Capital Home Builders, a 2,300-square-foot home needs a 4-ton air conditioner. Since there are 12,000 BTUs per ton, a house of this size needs a 48,000-BTU air conditioner. Why does the cfm per ton of air conditioning vary? How much space does a 3000 BTU air conditioner cool? Choosing the correct size for a home air conditioner is essential for comfort. If it's too small, the house does not cool properly. However, an air conditioner that is too large makes a home too chilly and humid. The ducts used for air conditioning must be the correct size as well. Heating ducts are not always the right dimensions for cooling, and they are not always in the proper location. If air conditioning ducts are too small, they often add to the operating noise. How can an air conditioner drain be unclogged? Attaching a wet-dry vacuum to the PVC drain outside the home quickly removes algae, dust, dirt and insects that tend to clog an air conditioner drain line....

What are some common repairs for a home's air conditioner? Some common repairs for a home air conditioner include leaking of refrigerant fluid, sensor issues and dirty units caused by poor maintenance. An open vent on a window air conditioner allows fresh air from outside to come into the home and circulate along with the cool air produced by the unit. How much does a 60,000-BTU gas furnace cost in a retail environment? Are flash water heaters dependable? How do you separate the gases in air? Where can you find a professional to install an outdoor furnace? What is a billet air cleaner?One of the most frustrating parts of my job as a Home Energy Rating (HERSIndex or scoring system for energy efficiency established by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) that compares a given home to a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Reference Home based on the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code. A home matching the reference home has a HERS Index of 100.

The lower a home’s HERS Index, the more energy efficient it is. how much does it cost to charge a ac unitA typical existing home has a HERS Index of 130; parts of an outside ac unita net zero energy home has a HERS Index of 0. ac window units reviewsOlder versions of the HERS index were based on a scale that was largely just the opposite in structure--a HERS rating of 100 represented a net zero energy home, while the reference home had a score of 80. There are issues that complicate converting old to new or new to old scores, but the basic formula is: New HERS index = (100 - Old HERS score) * 5.) provider is dealing with the size of air conditioners installed in Energy Star homesA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program to promote the construction of new homes that are at least 15% more energy-efficient than homes that minimally comply with the 2004 International Residential Code.

Energy Star Home requirements vary by climate.. My frustration has spilled over in the Energy Vanguard blog several times, and the topic in all its manifestations (HVAC sizing, Manual J load calculations, the HVAC industry...) has been one of my favorites to write about. I've got an idea of how to make things better now, though. Today it happened again. I was checking HERS rating files, and, as I usually do, I applied my AC sizing rule of thumb to see if the HVAC contractors treated the homes as a true high performance homes. Turns out they didn't. For the three homes in question, the air conditioning capacity was one ton for each 529 square feet, 544 sf, and 781 sf. Those numbers are not good. The first two, actually, are terrible. In case you're new to this subject, air conditioners should be sized to meet the cooling load of the house, and bigger is NOT better. If the AC is too big, it doesn't run long enough to dehumidify well, and the constant on-and-off cycles will shorten the life of the equipment.

A Manual J load calculation is how you find out what size air conditioner the house needs. So, here's my idea, and I'm starting a campaign for it. HVAC contractors like rules of thumb, so let's take that idea and adapt it. If you're a builder, home buyer, HVAC contractor, or real estate agent, here's a way that you can do a quick analysis to see if the air conditioner is oversized: Find the conditioned floor area. Find the air conditioner's capacity in tons. Divide the former by the latter. What you get is the number of square feet of conditioned floor area per ton of AC capacity. I told you above that 529, 544, and 781 aren't good, so what is a good number? As a rough guide, you can use the following: High Performance Home = 1000 sf/ton or more We've done a lot of load calculations here at Energy Vanguard, and I don't think we've had a single new home come in lower than 1000 sf/ton. I built a house here in Georgia that came in at about 2000 square feet per ton, and we recently worked on another one that was higher than that.

This number, 1000 sf/ton, should be your baseline. Nothing lower than that should be acceptable. Now before you get all in a huff and accuse me of being a hypocrite for promoting a rule of thumb, let me explain that I'm not saying the rule of thumb above is a subsitute for Manual J. Yeah, we could come up with a number for each location (e.g., 1100 sf/ton in Dallas, 24,000 sf/ton in Seattle, 0.00000000000000000000000001 sf/ton in Hell...), but you still have to do a room-by-room Manual J load calculation to select equipment and design ducts properly. Where this rule of thumb could really shine is for these three things: 1. Helping home builders know if their HVAC contractor is in the ballpark of proper HVAC sizing If a home builder is taking care of the building envelopeExterior components of a house that provide protection from colder (and warmer) outdoor temperatures and precipitation; includes the house foundation, framed exterior walls, roof or ceiling, and insulation, and air sealing materials., getting the ducts sealed, and doing all the things you have to do to build a high performance home, they can use this as a guide in negotiating with their HVAC contractor.

When the HVAC contractor tells the builder what they want to install, the builder can quickly see how it compares to our benchmark. (Of course, if the builder uses a third party for HVAC design, then they don't need to use this benchmark because they'll have a better number.) 2. Helping home buyers know if they might be buying a home with an oversized air conditioner Home buyers can get their calculators out and do this simple calculation. If they're buying what's supposed to be an energy efficient home and the number is far below 1000 sf/ton, then either the house isn't really so efficient or the system is oversized. In either case, they can steer clear of it and look for a real high performance home. 3. Simplifying programs like new homes The ENERGY STAR new homes program has been great for moving the whole new homes market toward greater energy efficiency. If you've taken a look at the new Version 3 guidelines, however, you probably felt a bit woozy afterward. They've made the program too complex, especially for HVAC.