When it comes to your home comfort systems, bigger doesn’t always mean better, and in some cases, a unit that is too large for your home’s needs can be less effective and efficient than a smaller unit. So, how do you know what the best size of air conditioner is for your home? Let’s take a look.
How Are Air Conditioners Sized?
When you start shopping around to find the best size of air conditioner for your home, you’ll notice that they aren’t categorized as small, medium, and large, like t-shirts or fast-food combos. Air conditioners are sized according to their weight and BTUs, which stands for British Thermal Units, and it measures how much heat the system can remove from a given area within one hour. To put this into perspective, a one-ton air conditioner can remove 12,000 BTUs of heat in one hour. An HVAC specialist can always help you find the best size of air conditioner for your home if you’re unsure what you need.
Size Issues
Although systems are sized according to how much heat they can remove from a space within one hour, that doesn’t mean you should just get the largest system you can afford. Air conditioners are designed to work with specific loads, which means that the best size of air conditioner for your home is the right size, not the biggest size. Choosing a system that is too large can cause problems including:
Short Cycling
If your air conditioner is too large for your home, it can lead to short-cycling, which is when your system constantly turns on and off. This occurs because excessive blasts of cool air from your air conditioner will trick the thermostat into thinking the proper temperature has been achieved, but once the air disperses, it will trigger your cooling system to turn on again.
Decreased Comfort
Short cycling means conditioned air isn’t finding its way into the furthest corners of your home. The short-cycling that an oversized system causes can lead you to feel too cold at first, and then too hot shortly after. A properly sized unit with longer run times allows the cooled air time to be distributed throughout the whole house making every area more comfortable.
Humidity
Air conditioning systems that are properly sized allow the humid air more opportunity to run over the cooling coil where dehumidification occurs. Units too large can cool the air but don’t allow enough cycle time to reduce the humidity properly. The greatest comfort derived is usually from the lowering of humidity.
Looking for help finding the best size air conditioner for your home?
The experts at Delta can help!
The team of HVAC experts at Delta have been proudly serving the Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, and Guelph regions heating and cooling needs since the 1950s. We are committed to providing our clients with cost-effective solutions and high-quality equipment.
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