What Size Air Conditioner Do I Need?

Australian summers become uncomfortable without air conditioning and Aussies are to go for different air conditioners of different capacities. Therefore, the most important question becomes “What Size Air Conditioner Do I Need?”. Most people do not know which AC size would serve their needs best.

Importance of Choosing a Right AC

Choosing a right air conditioner that cools your household and provides comfort to your family and at the same time consumes less energy and your money and time is a very crucial choice. But over time, several air conditioners have been introduced in the market with the new technology of consuming less energy and giving more cooling. One of the best and latest introduced is mitsubishi minisplit, a perfect air conditioner with minimal energy consumption.

One should keep in mind while assessing one’s air conditioning needs that proper size AC means different factors to be taken into consideration.

An AC that is:

  • over-sized would increase your electricity consumption because it would cause rapid cooling. Rapid cooling does not cool the ceiling or wall or other objects in the room. Moreover, the cooling process also requires the removal of humidity. Rapid cooling won’t remove the humidity. Consequently, the temperature of the room would soon be greater than our desired because neither humidity has been removed nor the objects and walls in the room have been cooled to the optimum level.
  • under-sized would cause discomfort because of not optimum cooling and AC could run for extended hours to cool the space. In both of these choices, there lies a choice that is just right and you can find out that just right choice in the following lines.

3 Best Ways to Choose Just Right AC in Melbourne

Air conditioning is a very complex process because it involves multiple factors. First of all one should know the weather. If we prioritize from all the factors that affect the cooling process, size matters the most.  Still knowing even the right size or area of the room won’t provide the best estimation of our cooling needs. Therefore, there are three ways in which we can make estimations.

1. Getting Professional Services

The best way to calculate your air conditioning needs is to get the services of professionals in the industry. The professionals have years of experience in assessing the air conditioning needs and installing ACs. They can make use of their technical knowledge and experience to incorporate every factor to assess the air conditioning needs. In this way, you can get the most accurate estimation of cooling needs that would help you in making an informed decision.

2. Using Online Calculators

Different companies and service providers have built calculators to help you to choose the right air conditioner for your room. These calculators require multiple data to be entered to make the best estimation.

3. Quick Math to Choose JUST RIGHT AC for YOUR Space

Know your Climate Zone First

Nationwide House Energy Rating System has divided Australia into regions of similar climatic conditions. You should know in which region you reside. You can have a general idea from the following image that how the temperature and humidity vary across the different regions. To check your climate zone, just visit the Climate Zone Display and select the postcode of your city from the drop-down menu on the top left of the given webpage.

Know your Climate Zone First

The air conditioning requirements would be higher for hot and humid.

Calculate the Area of Living Space

Now as you have found your climate region, you can have an idea how much extreme or average temperatures might be in your locality. After that you have to multiply the length and width with 0.15kw. It will give you an estimation of Kw needed to cool the given space

Air conditioning Requirements

Let’s say a room has                                        width =4m   length =5m

 

Formula

AC Power Needed   = Length * Width * 0.15

= 4*4*0.15

= 2.4 kW

 

 

The Most Important Factor to consider: Size of the room

A house design plays very important role in determining the air conditioning needs of a house. The house builders should check this checklist while building new houses. However, the houses which have already been built have no choice of re-designing to much extent. Therefore, the only option that can be taken into consideration and which is very important is finding the accurate size of the room. Room sizes are well defined and one can find the area of the room by just multiplying the length and width. Now the size becomes the most important consideration. Therefore, you just need to determine the area of space and then just multiply that with 30 BTU. This will give the AC requirements in BTU. You can convert BTU into Ton or KW and can make an informed decision.

Factors that Affect Cooling of an AC

There are two important things to be considered here while determining which AC size would be the optimum one which cools space and save money and time. First, it is the air conditioner and second, it is the condition of the home or space where AC is to be installed.  The capacity of the air conditioner is built in. Therefore, we have to look at other factors that affect cooling. These are the following factors that affect the cooling efficiency of an AC.

  • Material: A house built of concrete, stone, or wood affects cooling differently
  • Orientation: If the room or the space in which an AC is installed has walls or windows on sides sun rays directly coming from, the AC has to run for extra hours to bring the temperature to the desired level as compared to the room or space which is not in front of sun rays.
  • The number of windows: The number of windows also affects the cooling efficiency of the AC as sun rays can easily pass through a window glass than a wooden or stone wall.
  • Insulation: Insulation of walls and the ceiling can considerably restrict the heat transfer from outside in the room. It would help the cooling process.
  • Location: Location also impacts the choice of which capacity suits best. Hot and humid areas require more cooling than areas with lesser temperatures and humidity.