One of the more important pieces of information you should know when searching for a new air conditioner is the cooling load of your home. This is the amount of cooling that’s required to keep your indoor environment at the temperature you prefer. The industry accepted method of determining your home’s cooling load is set forth in Manual J, “Residential Load Calculation.” This manual, published by the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), provides all the procedures and technical details your HVAC professional needs to assess your home’s thermal characteristics and perform accurate cooling load calculations.
When you know the cooling load of your home, you can purchase an air conditioner that’s sized correctly to meet the unique needs of your house. Air conditioners that are too small will not be able to cool properly, while units that are too big wil
l waste energy and money, while not providing adequate humidity control. A load calculation performed to the standards of Manual J will give you and your HVAC contractor all the necessary data to choose an air conditioner that’s the correct size for your home. Equipment recommendations should be based on professional interpretation of load calculation data.
A Manual J cooling load calculation produces two important pieces of information for sizing an air conditioner:
- Sensible cooling load: Cooling requires effective removal of sensible heat, or the type of heat that can be felt, or sensed, and measured with a thermometer. The sensible cooling load is the amount of sensible heat that your air conditioner can remove during the daytime on very hot days.
- Latent cooling load: Latent cooling load concerns how much moisture the air conditioner can remove during hot, humid days. Latent cooling load tells you how much energy will be required for effective dehumidification during these conditions.
Marsh Heating & Air Conditioning has been providing quality HVAC services to homeowners in the Twin Cities area for more than 38 years. Contact us today for more information on heating and cooling load calculations for your home, or for a professional load calculation using the trusted Manual J.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about Manual J and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Marsh Heating and Air Conditioning services Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Visit our website to schedule a free air check today!