What You Need to Know before Choosing a HVAC for Your Home

Once you are done constructing your home and have installed proper insulation, the next step is to invest in a good HVAC system. There are so many brands out there that you can go with. The downside is that not every system you find on the market will be ideal for you. There are several key considerations you have to make in order to end up with the most reliable system. The purpose of this post is to help you choose the right system for your home.

Hire an experienced installer

The first thing you need to understand is that installing a HVAC is not a DIY project. You need professional help, else installation problems will lead to myriad problems sooner than later. The installer is the person who will help with the calculations needed to determine how big or small the HVAC needs to be. This is done by calculating how much cooling and heating is needed to keep the occupants comfortable. This is what is referred to as the load of the home.

Load of the home

The load of the home is dependent partly on the home’s square footage. However, this is not the only consideration an experienced installer will look at. To get a more accurate calculation, the installer will consider other things like:

• Building construction
• R value of the installed insulation
• Orientation to the sun
• Placement of the rooms, their sizes and number
• Placement of doors and windows
• Types of doors and windows used
• Arrangement and number of floors
• The climate

When determining the load of a home, installers use mathematical formulas which take all the aforementioned variables into consideration. The good thing is that these formulas have been computerized. This means the installer doesn’t have to spend a lot of time to help you achieve max comfort heating.

Calculating the load of the home is essential if you want to avoid the following problems:

• Installing over-sized HVAC
• High initial costs
• Increased monthly bills
• Shortened life of the equipment
• Increased maintenance

Importance of having the right sized system

Having the wrong sized HVAC can lead to many problems, some of which have been listed above. Over sizing the heating-cooling system is not a good thing either. The reason for this is because a larger system will consume more power and do more than is required. For an extremely small system, it will breakdown faster because it has to work overtime.

The right sized cooling system will run long enough to wring moisture out of the air. This helps you to be comfortable with a slightly higher thermostat setting and also enables you to save money on the utility bills. This system will also eliminate mugginess without causing chillness.

The HVACs are sized in tons. This is the measure of the rate at which they deliver cooling and their weight. One ton cooling is equivalent to 12,000 Btu/h (British Thermal Units per hour). The rate of cooling needed to free a ton of ice at 32 degree F is one day. When shopping, it is much better to go for a system that supplies a bit less required tonnage of cooling than one that supplies more tonnage than is required.