Correct Furnace Sizing Is Key for Comfort

Are you thinking about getting a new furnace? Before you jump into purchasing a new heating system for your home, it’s imperative that you get the right furnace sizing. Both undersized or oversized systems can give you a lot of headaches, and really hit hard in the household budget.

Not having the right heating equipment raises energy costs for the following reasons:

• Undersized furnaces have to work harder to keep your home temperature at a comfortable level, and during extremely cold weather can run constantly without achieving that comfort level. While running this hard, parts tend to wear down more rapidly, losing their efficiency before breaking down entirely.
• Oversized furnaces tend to short cycle, with many more starts and stops than correctly size systems. This results in energy waste, uneven heating and even poor maintenance of indoor air quality.

Fortunately, working out correct furnace sizing isn’t a hit and miss affair, and standards set by the ACCA (Air Conditioning Contractors of America) help greatly in this regard.

Professional HVAC contractors use a set of proven industry standards to assess the precise heating and cooling requirements for your home. Respectively known as Manuals J, D and S, these standards assist contractors in:

• Assessing energy needs for your particulate house, in terms of size, layout, efficiency and more
• Designing efficient and compatible duct systems, and
• Selecting the best equipment solutions.

Contractors highly skilled in the use of these technical standards will carefully calculate your heating needs ensuring all energy dynamics and home factors are taken into account.

These include examining:

• House design and ducting design
• Current insulation materials used in the home, and
• Loss of heat through exterior openings such as doors and windows.

Local professional HVAC companies are often happy to provide a free assessment of your energy and heating needs, and propose the best system solution for you.

For more help on selecting the correct furnace sizing for your home, contact our friendly professional staff at Sobieski Services, Inc. Our goal is to help educate our customers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC & plumbing systems).

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