One of the first things you might want to do when you rent a new apartment or build a new home is to install air conditioners in the rooms. Even with the extreme coldness of Toronto, you would not want to go through the scorching heat of the summer. However, it is not enough to consider installing air conditioner in your room; you need to know the appropriate size of air conditioner to install in order to get the best result.
The Bigger is not the Better – The Optimal is the Best
A common misconception made by most people is the saying that “the bigger is always the better”, but this is wrong. An air conditioner that is relatively bigger than your room may cool the room faster but it will not remove humidity fast enough from the room.
It is important to note that an air conditioner is designed to serve two main purposes: cooling and dehumidifying. If any of these purposes fails or lags, the air conditioner cannot be said to be effective. Interestingly, a relatively bigger air conditioner will lag in dehumidifying the room and hence it is really ineffective.
What happens to a relatively smaller air conditioner? A relatively smaller air conditioner is a direct opposite of a bigger air conditioner. It will struggle to cool the room and hence will cost you more electricity and the cost of running the air conditioner will be high. It lags in its cooling ability and therefore is not effective.
The best way to make the most of your air conditioner is to go for an optimal size. How do you determine the optimal size of an air conditioner with respect to your room size? It is not rocket science, the process is simple.
Calculating the air conditioner size for your room
You can easily figure out the AC power you need for your room by following a number of available charts but similar values and results can be arrived at using simple calculations.
For room size 100-150 square feet, you need 5000 BTU per hour, for 150-250 you need 6000, 250-300 you need 7000, 300-350 you need 8000, 350-400 you need 9000, 400-450 you need 10,000, and so forth.
You can easily measure the area of your living room by using a handy tape. You may also arrive at the area by obtaining the length and the width and multiplying the two together. In some cases, you can get the BTU per hour needed by your room by multiplying the area in square feet by 25 BTU; the value obtained will give you the approximate BTU capacity needed to cool your room.
For instance, if your room size is 260 square feet, you can multiply this by 25 BTU to get 6500 BTU per hour. This gives the approximate size or power of air conditioner needed to cool your room. Of course, room size and area are not the only factors to consider. You may also need to consider the average temperature of your area to determine the appropriate AC size for your room.
