Derek Cole explains why bigger air conditioning units don't fix homes that feel too warm. A proper load analysis considers square footage, windows, ductwork, and upgrades. An oversized unit on undersized ducts wastes energy and reduces dehumidification, like a fire hydrant feeding a garden hose.
When it comes to your heating air unit, is bigger better? Is bigger better? We go to some homes and folks say, hey, this thing didn't keep me, you know, cool last summer too much. I got a 3-ton, I think I need a 4-ton. Well, a couple things. We're going to do a load analysis on the home to see if that's right for your home. What the equipment is currently in your home is right for your home. We're going to do things like measure square footage, measure windows, get window orientation, check the duct system, check the runs, see what size the duct system is for. All this is going to play into, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't matter if you have a 4-ton unit outside, if your duct system is only made for a 3-ton duct system, it could be a 4-ton unit, but guess what? It's only going to do a 3-ton duct system, right? So it's kind of like, uh, I would lay this— kind of relate this to a garden hose. Um, you know, you could put the garden hose on the fire hydrant, and yeah, the fire hydrant lets out a lot of water, but the garden hose is only one size. So the water to get through the garden hose is going to be— it doesn't matter how much water the fire hydrant releases, it can only hold that much water in the garden hose. So you have to make sure everything syncs together to work for your benefit. But does your home need that big of a unit, or do other adjustments need to be made, like sealing your duct system. Maybe even as easy as adding insulation into the attic or into a room wherever the hot and cold spots are. Heating and air is not— it's not only about the unit. The unit is the, the big factor, but it's also about the duct system, the unit, the duct system, and it's about the house. What does your house need? Have you upgraded from single-pane to double-pane windows? Do you now have a storm door on the front? Do you now have a carport or shading around the front of the home, like a porch? Have you added a porch to the front? So now those windows that used to be on the south side Say your front door's facing south, but now the windows that were at once south-facing, maybe now you built a porch over it, a permanent porch over it, so now it's considered a north-facing window because it's always in the shade. It's always shaded, so it's not a south window anymore. So are things like that— have they been done to your home? Since the last time you got a system. Now, most cases we're probably gonna go back with what has been there, but we are gonna take the time and verify that that is the system for your home, because this is— at least this is a 10-year decision, right? This is the next 10 years parts and labor warranty with everything we install. 10-year decision. So we want to make sure we're getting it right and we don't have a mistake or something to happen that we didn't see happening. We're gonna take a look, do a load analysis, figure out what needs, what needs to happen to bring this system up to code. But we are going to get a permit, so we need to see what is going to happen to get this system back up to code. But, uh, it's not as simple as, hey, I want to go from a 3-ton to a 4-ton system, uh, why don't you give me what I want, my system isn't doing what I want when it's 100 degrees outside. It's not as simple and getting dry as you may think. A lot of factors come into play when sizing your system, and we can check all that out. And yeah, we We send people out to do the measurements, to ask the questions, to do the load, to verify you have the right system for your home. Because what tends to happen is it's going to short cycle if you, you know, say your duct system is big enough to handle a 4-ton. So you go back, you need a 3-ton, but you go back with a 4-ton. You know, I need a 4-ton because When it's 100 degrees outside, I want my home to be 68. I want the 4-ton. All right, say you get that 4-ton, but your home calls for a 3-ton. So what's going to happen with that 4-ton system? It's now going to— y'all been in like bigger commercial buildings or maybe even the courthouse, and you feel that kind of It's cold, it's cool, but it's kind of a clammy feeling, uh, because the unit is sized for that courtroom being full of people. It's not sized for, uh, 1, 2, 3, 4 people. So it's trying to cool when everyone is in that spot. So therefore, the unit has to be sized for that happening. So what's going to happen eventually it's going to be oversized, so it's not going to be able to dehumidify. Now what that means at home for you is it's not going to dehumidify. It's also going to short— what they call short cycling, meaning if the thermostat's set to 75 and it pops up to 76, it turns on. It turns on for a very short time because it's going to take a very little cooling to get it down to 75. So it's going to do what they call short cycling, so it's going come on, come off, come on, come off, come on, come off, come on, come off. It's, uh, despite what you might think, it's actually better for the unit to run longer periods of time than the turn on, turn off, turn on, turn off. Uh, it's kind of like the same way when you're driving in your car. It's much more efficient to be on the interstate than to be in stop-and-go traffic. So you want your system to be on the interstate and not in stop-and-go traffic. So stop-and-go traffic for your unit could be an oversizing problem. It could be a few things, but it could be oversizing, sizing a problem. So replacing your system is very important to get that load done, load analysis done, to make sure you have the right system for your application, because again, this is a 10-year decision and it's not something you want to take lightly.
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