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Fort Myers, Florida air conditioning laws change dramatically earlier this year! In the past an air conditioning contractor would, typically, consider the square footage of a home and his knowledge and experience to decide what size air conditioner to recommend to his clients. Generally speaking this worked out quite well ... however ... it was an inexact process. In the interest of reducing the demand for electricity from local power companies, and to provide optimum levels of comfort at minimum cost to the people of Florida a new law has been passed requiring A/C contractors to perform heat load calculations for any new air conditioning equipment being installed.
The importance of this is significant to the overall comfort of the consumer. Obviously an air conditioner too small will not put out enough air to adequately cool the home. In the past contractors would estimate just a little high to ensure enough cool air was being circulated through the home, and this normally worked out just fine! However, the possibility existed for the contractor to estimate too high ... creating a flow of air that cooled the home too quickly without allowing the equipment time to sufficiently remove the moisture (humidity) from the air resulting in less than optimum comfort levels. Heat load calculation's prevent this from happening.
A heat load calculation considers a number of factors to determine the appropriate size air conditioner for a specific home, dwelling, or commercial building. Some of the factors considered in the calculation are ...
Windows: Size, type, insulation, and the direction they are facing.
Square Feet: The overall square footage of the area to be cooled.
Roof: The pitch of the roof and the color & type of shingles.
Insulation: The type and thickness of the insulation.
Doors: The type, style, insulation, material, usage, and the direction the door is facing.
Heat generated from appliances, lighting, machinery, etc.
Geographical area
The type of foundation.
The type of walls & the insulation in the walls.
These are the factor's typically considered in the heat load calculation for a single level dwelling (known as a block load calculation). For a building of 2 or more floors an even more complicated formula is used to ensure even cooling throughout the building(known as a "room by room" calculation). A block load calculation might look something like this
1.
Calculate the area in square feet of the space to be cooled, and multiply by 31.25
Area BTU = length (ft.) x width (ft.) x 31.25
2.
Calculate the heat gain through the windows. If the windows don’t have shading multiply the result by 1.4.
North window BTU = Area of North facing windows (m. sq.) x 164
If no shading, North window BTU = North window BTU x 1.4
South window BTU = Area of South facing windows (m. sq.) x 868
If no shading, South window BTU = South window BTU x 1.4
Add the results together.
Total window BTU = North window + South window
3.
Calculate the heat generated by occupants, allow 600 BTU per person.
Occupant BTU = number of people x 600
4.
Calculate the heat generated by each item of machinery - copiers, computers, ovens etc. Find the power in watts for each item, add them together and multiply by 3.4
Equipment BTU = total equipment watts x 3.4
5.
Calculate the heat generated by lighting. Find the total wattage for all lighting and multiply by 4.25
Lighting BTU = total lighting watts x 4.25
6.
Add the above together to find the total heat load.
Total heat load BTU = Area BTU + Total Window BTU + Occupant BTU + Equipment BTU + Lighting BTU
7.
Divide the heat load by the cooling capacity of the air conditioning unit in BTU, to determine how many air conditioners are needed.
Number of a/c units required = Total heat load BTU / Cooling capacity BTU
And that is the simple version! It can get more complicated than that! Fortunately, technology has come to the rescue once again ... there are numerous resources available to today's air conditioning contractor in the form of web sites and computer software that allow them to enter the relevant data and receive the information they need to make the proper determination as to the size of unit required to provide an efficient and economical level of cooling to their clients.
Air Conditioning Service Ft Myers by Community Cooling & Heating
239-267-2117 Serving SW Florida Region. Heating and Air Conditioning, Residential Air Conditioning, Commercial Air Conditioning in Ft Myers/Naples Fl and Lee County Fl
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