December 08, 2014
Think your AC is oversized? Here are 3 signs that your hunch is spot on.
This is called “short cycling.” It means the oversized AC cools the home to your desired temperature too quickly.
How fast is too fast to be considered “oversized”?
On a hot afternoon, if the AC cools your home in 10 minutes or less, it’s oversized. If it runs for 20 minutes or so, you should be OK.
This sign is related to the first. If the AC has a short runtime, it can’t pull enough humidity out of your air.
If your AC was sized correctly, it would have a longer runtime and therefore dehumidify your home to a comfortable level (30% to 50%).
Learn how an AC dehumidifies your home in this article, “Why Is My Home so Humid?” [FAQ].
Imagine turning a car off every time you come to a red light. You’d waste a boatload of gas, right?
The same concept goes for an AC—starting up takes more energy. So, if your energy bills are high, that’s another sign your AC may be oversized.
So, how’d you get into this predicament?
Well, long story short, to get a correctly sized size AC you need an HVAC technician to do a Manual J Heat Load Calculation.
But many HVAC techs, either don’t know how to do the calculation, or they don’t think they need to do the calculation when installing an AC.
Why would they think they don’t need to do the calculation?
Imagine a technician seeing that you currently have a 3-ton AC. Seems logical to just replace it with another 3-ton unit.
But what if the current 3-ton unit is too large for the home? Then you’re just replacing an oversized unit with another oversized unit.
It’s the tech’s responsibility to find the AC size that you need. So, if you just had an incorrectly sized AC installed, contact the technician for help.
If your AC is old and you need a new AC installed, contact a reputable Sarasota HVAC company that will do the right calculations to find the size you need.
Cool Today provides award-winning air conditioning service to Sarasota, Florida and the surrounding areas like Bradenton, Tampa and Port Charlotte. If you have any questions, talk to one of our experts for help.
Posted in: Buyer's Guide