By Sierra Air Conditioning and Plumbing
When determining the appropriate size of your Home Comfort System, our Comfort Advisors always take measurements and your home’s specifications. The size doesn’t actually refer to the physical size of the unit, but instead, it refers to the cooling capacity which is measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units). The goal is to get the best efficiency for your home based on how large of an area your unit needs to cool or heat.
What is a Load Calculation?
It calculates the amount of heating and cooling BTUs needed for the whole home. In addition to the actual size of your home, our Comfort Advisors also look at your landscaping, which directions your windows face, if your windows are single or double-paned, which rooms get hotter/colder, etc.
Bigger Doesn’t Always Mean it’s Better
It’s important to calculate load so that your new equipment is neither undersized nor oversized. Some may think that bigger is better, but this is not true when it comes to your Home Comfort System. If your system is bigger than it needs to be, it’s probably not as efficient and will cost you more in utilities and use more power than it needs to while also being inefficient. The opposite is true as well. And some may think that they can downsize to save money. If your system is undersized for your home, it will have to work harder to cool or heat your home and it may not cool or heat your home enough at all.