Professional HVAC Installs Begin With a Load Calculation

If you need a new HVAC system for a newly constructed home, replacement machines for failing equipment or a more efficient upgrade, know that any professional heating and air conditioning installation job begins with a full load calculation. Without this calculation, your new system will not be properly sized to fit your home’s heating and cooling needs, and an improperly sized system will suffer in terms of energy efficiency and maintenance. On the other hand, your dealer can use the results of a proper calculation to find a system that is sized perfectly to meet your home’s needs as efficiently and effectively as possible.

The Calculation

Much of what goes into a professional calculation is quite intuitive. Larger homes need more heating and cooling power than smaller homes, of course, so square footage plays a major role in the calculation. Insulation helps your home maintain its temperature even as the weather changes; thus, a home with plenty of high-quality insulation will have a lighter load than one that is poorly insulated. Other factors that affect this calculation include the number and type of doors and windows in your home and the presence of any load-creating appliances.

The term “load calculation” itself generally refers to the air conditioning portion of the evaluation. A calculation of your home’s heating load is often called a heat loss calculation because it depends primarily on the heat your home loses through its entrances, walls and roof.

Benefits of a Professional Calculation

Some contractors may think it is reasonable to just size a new system based on the specifications of the old equipment, but this is a serious mistake. In many cases, the old calculation was not performed correctly, causing the new system to be sized as improperly as the one it replaces. Even if the old calculation found the exact load, changing insulation and other circumstances may well have rendered it obsolete. Just copying the old calculation thus often leads to energy efficiency issues and reduces the lifespan of the new equipment.

Meanwhile, equipment sized by a thorough professional calculation is guaranteed to match the home it heats or cools exactly. Machines sized to fit the right load will operate at maximum efficiency and are less prone to maintenance issues than improperly sized appliances. Thus, a properly sized system saves its owner money two ways: Monthly utility bills go down, and future repairs are less likely to be needed.

At All Temp Air Conditioning and Heating, we consider a full load calculation to be an essential part of our professional heating and air conditioning installation services. We are committed to finding the best equipment for our friends and neighbors in the Quail Hollow NC, so we take every factor into account to size each machine we install perfectly. If your home needs new HVAC equipment, give us a call right away to get the process started.