Heat Gain and Loss Calculations How to Size Your Home Heating System Sizing the heating and cooling systems for your home is not something to be taken lightly. An undersized system will not be able to meet the load demands during the bleakest days of the winter or the most stifling summer afternoons. An oversized system will cycle on and off excessively, resulting in rapid fluctuations in the temperature of your home and may prematurely wear out your equipment. TOTAL COMFORT offers the following shortcut methods for estimating the heating and cooling capacity of a standard residential home only as a preliminary budgeting tool. We cannot accept responsibility for any damages or inadequacy of the systems installed based on the use of these methods. Consult with TOTAL COMFORT Heating and Cooling your heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning professional for the final design of your system. We can perform a more thorough heat gain/loss calculation to accurately size the equipment required for your home. The Quick & Dirty Method for Estimating Heating & Cooling Systems *Determine the total conditioned (heated and cooled) square footage of your home. Example: A residential home has a total conditioned floor area of 2400 SF *2400 SF / 600 = approximately 4 tons of cooling capacity *45 x 2400 SF = approximately 108,000 BTU/hr output capacity of forced air furnace. Warnings: *These rules-of-thumb work only with central air conditioning systems and gas forced air furnaces. *These are gross approximations. Local climatic conditions, the amount of insulation in your home, and the quality of window and door products may significantly alter the required capacities of your heating and cooling systems. Use these numbers as a beginning rule-of-thumb only! The Basic Heat Loss Method for Sizing Heating Systems Walls *Figure the total area of all outside walls (subtract out all door and window openings): *If you have a wood framed wall with some type of siding, multiply this area x 6.2 *If you have a wood framed wall with brick veneer, multiply this area x 5.8 TOTAL WALL BTU’S________________________ Windows *Figure the total area of windows in your home: *Multiply the window area x 41 --Note: Count all glass doors as window area TOTAL WINDOW BTU’S:______________________ Doors *Figure the total area of doors in your home: *Multiply the door area x 50 TOTAL DOOR BTU’S: _______________________ Basements Note: Ignore this section if you have no basement. *Figure the area of basement walls with no insulation: *Multiply this number x 8: *Figure the area of basement walls with insulation *Multiply this number x 4.5: TOTAL BASEMENT BTU’S: _________________ Floors Note: Find the floor area for each type of floor below and calculate the BTU’s as shown. If your home has several types of different conditions, perform a calculation for each area. *If your floor is a concrete slab, multiply the area x 31: *If your floor is wood framed over a basement, multiply the area x 2.3: *If your floor is over a garage (and is insulated), multiply the area x 5.2: *If your floor is over a garage (and is not insulated), multiply the area x 17: *If your floor is over a crawlspace (and is insulated), multiply the area x 3.4: *If your floor is over a crawlspace (and is not insulated), multiply the area x 8.5: TOTAL FLOOR BTU’S:_________________________ Ceilings Note: For Two-story homes, use only the second story ceiling for this calculation. *Figure the total ceiling area with insulation above, and multiply the area x 4.2: *Figure the total ceiling area with no insulation above, and multiply the area x 10: TOTAL CEILING BTU’S___________________________ Miscellaneous Items *For each fireplace in your home, multiply x 5300: *For each skylight in your home, multiply x 55: *For each sunspace (or all-glass patio room or greenhouse), multiply x 10,000: TOTAL MISCELLANEOUS BTU’S____________________ SUBTOTAL OF ALL BTU’S FROM THE ABOVE CATEGORIES:____________ Construction Quality Adjustment Make an estimate of the relative quality of the construction of your home: *Tight: Multiply BTU Subtotal x 0.8 (Construction (quality windows and doors, caulking in good repair) *Average: Multiply BTU Subtotal x 1.0 (Some leakiness around weatherstripping, caulking needs some replacement) *Loose: Multiply BTU Subtotal x 1.5 (Very drafty windows and doors, caulking deteriorated) MODIFIED BTU SUBTOTAL (multiply by the above factors for your construction):___________ Local Climate Adjustment Multiply the Modified BTU Subtotal x 0.9 to obtain the Total Output BTU’s require for your heating system. Location Factor Denver, CO: 0.9 *Multiply the Modified BTU by the Local Climate Adjustment Factor The Result is the TOTAL OUTPUT BTU’S REQUIRED: _________ The Total Output Btu’s are a basic criteria in ordering furnaces for heating homes. Use this figure as a preliminary estimate in discussing your heating needs with TOTAL COMFORT heating and Cooling. For air-conditioning needs, estimate the cooling tonnage required by dividing the Total Output Btu’s by 12,000. Be aware, however, that individual home cooling loads vary greatly and this is general figure only.

TOTAL COMFORT Heating and Cooling designs and sells central air conditioning and heating systems for every size and type of home and light commercial business within the greater Denver, Colorado area and the surrounding Denver, Colorado suburbs. So whether you are building a new home, business or remodeling or just replacing your furnace or central air conditioner, TOTAL COMFORT Heating and Cooling can give you the most efficient, reliable and durable products for your home. As you journey through our web site you'll see why we say: It's Hard To Stop a Trane. Please feel free to look through our site for information on why Trane is the TOTAL COMFORT system for your home .

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