Is Your Air Conditioner the Right Size for Your Yorktown, VA Home?

When it comes to efficiently cooling your Yorktown, Virginia, home, the size of your air conditioner matters. If it’s too big, you’ll pay more for the system itself, experience increased indoor humidity, and have higher energy bills all summer long. But a system that’s too small will have to work much harder to cool your indoor space, also resulting in high energy bills. Because a small system is constantly running, the system is at an increased risk for damage and a shorter useful life.

Making certain that you have the right air conditioner size will improve your system’s ability to efficiently cool your space, remove humidity, and moderate energy consumption. Here are some factors to consider when evaluating the correct size of the air conditioning system for your home.

Calculating the Square Footage

You’ll first need to know the square footage of the space you want to cool. Do this by finding the area of each room in your home (multiplying the length by the width). Add the area of each room together, then multiply that total by 25 British Thermal Units or BTUs. Your answer gives you the BTU capacity your home requires and helps you narrow down the available systems.

Watching the Shade

The shade that trees provide can affect the amount of cooling power your home requires. When calculating BTU capacity, add 10 percent for sunny rooms and subtract 10 percent for shaded ones.

Calculating Occupancy

The most heavily used rooms in your home will require extra cooling power, so make sure you consider that in your calculations. For rooms that regularly have two or more people inside them, add 600 BTU per room for each additional person.

Accounting for Cooking

Kitchens are known for the heat they produce, so add 4,000 BTU to your total to account for the increased work needed to cool this room.

Installing an air conditioner that fits your home can benefit both your wallet and your comfort this summer. Call Lighthouse Mechanical Heating and Cooling at 757-251-0579 today to ensure your air conditioner installation is done correctly.

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