How The Pros Size a Furnace Correctly?
Correctly sizing a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is critical for performance, indoor comfort, energy efficiency and equipment longevity. Licensed, experienced professionals should use industry standards to calculate load and determine the proper size of heating and cooling equipment.
The professionals at Bradenton One Hour in Bradenton, Florida, work with all brands and models of furnaces, including geothermal heating systems, heat pumps, boilers and furnaces. We understand the importance of properly sizing a furnace.
Factors That Affect Sizing
Some contractors size a furnace or an air conditioner using the “rule of thumb,” a quick estimate based on the square footage of your home. This method does not consider critical variables that accurately determine the correct sizing of equipment, such as the local climate and amount of insulation in a building. Both oversizing and undersizing affect comfort, equipment performance and energy efficiency.
To optimize the performance of your new system, your contractor should use a verified, reputable standard to calculate load. Load calculations are required by national building codes as well as most state and many local codes. The Air Conditioning Contractor’s Association of America, the leading HVAC professional organization in the U.S., publishes standards and codes used by the industry nationwide. Manual J provides standards for calculating load to determine heating and cooling equipment size for residences.
Factors that affect sizing include:
- Size and orientation of building
- Local climate and other environmental factors
- Number of occupants in each room
- Internal heat gain, such as appliance usage in kitchens and laundry rooms
- Amount of insulation in attics, walls and floors
- Number and location of doors and windows, their composition and size
- Building shell air infiltration rates
- Sizing and condition of existing ducts
The technicians at Bradenton One Hour will conduct a load calculation to properly size a furnace for your home. We will discuss your indoor comfort requirements, lifestyle and budget and recommend furnace models that suit your needs.
Why Correct Sizing Matters
Studies by the U.S. Department of Energy show that correct sizing of heating and cooling equipment matters. Some HVAC contractors oversize systems, believing that bigger is better or that oversized systems will be more energy efficient. In reality, the opposite is true.
Oversized furnaces warm some areas more quickly than others. The thermostat senses that the entire home is warm and shuts down the system before other rooms reach the set temperature. Oversized systems may start and stop more frequently, which causes more wear and tear on components. Short cycling uses energy each time the system powers up, which consumes more energy throughout the day than a properly sized furnace. Shorter runs often fail to achieve cohesive comfort levels throughout a building. Instead, you may notice hot and cold spots within a room or uneven temperatures between rooms.
Undersized furnaces struggle to maintain a comfortable indoor environment. They often run for long periods to reach and maintain the set temperature, which can strain equipment. Just like oversizing, undersizing causes equipment to wear out more quickly. Your furnace may require frequent or costly repairs. Undersized equipment uses more energy to run, which reduces its efficiency and will drive up your energy bills.
Benefits of Properly Sizing a Furnace 
A properly sized furnace should perform in accordance with the manufacturers’ ratings for energy efficiency, reliability and performance. The trained professionals of Bradenton One Hour will conduct a load calculation to size your furnace. We will discuss our procedures with you and recommend brands and models that provide the best value for your situation.
Our service technicians recognize that manufacturers’ ratings do not always correspond to equipment performance in real-life applications. We may recommend products that we know perform reliably and efficiently in Florida’s hot, humid climate.
During the process of determining the proper size of furnace, our installers will also examine the existing duct system. Ducts regulate airflow, air pressure and air speed. The wrong duct size can negatively affect comfort, energy efficiency and safety. We want to ensure that your new furnace is compatible with the duct system in your home. If we find incompatibility, we will discuss whether duct repair or replacement is needed.
Bradenton One Hour offers years of technical expertise, bringing you peace of mind knowing that your heating and cooling system is in good hands. We are available 24 hours a day. When you book an appointment with us, we guarantee we are on time, or you don’t pay a dime. We stand behind our work with a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee on labor and materials. Up-front pricing ensures that you know what you are buying and what it will cost before we start work.
