How to Size a Home Heating System

It might be a little hard to find one that is the exact requirement for your home, but you can always estimate between 0 to 20% over the required one.

 

To be sure that you have the exact size, you can always contact a professional.

There are different factors to size a home heating system that you should essentially know before you start. You need to consider the following:

 

•    Your local climate whether it is too humid or too cold.

•    Size, shape, and orientation of the house so the exact measurements can be taken to fit the heating system.

•    Insulation levels of the house so you would know how to deal with it.

•    Window area, location, and type of windows you have for air leakage.

•    Air infiltration rates 

•    The number and ages of occupants is to let you know the current heating system to buy as there are furnaces that offers anti-allergies especially to babies.

•    Occupant comfort preferences whether like it to be too hot or just enough for them to be cozy.

•    The types and efficiencies of lights and major home appliances that give off heat needs to be included to size a home heating system.

 

Now that you have known these factors you are now ready to size a home heating system!

 

First, you need to measure the area of your home that needs to be heated. This would include the walls, ceilings, floor space and windows. List down the length and the width of each measurement made.

 

The length and width that used inches as the unit of measurement should be converted to decimals. This is done by dividing the measured length or width by 12. Add the width and length to get the total measurement for each length and width. The overall total of the width should be multiplies to the overall total of the length to get the square feet.

 

If you live in a cold climate, multiply the total square feet by 4o, if you are in a warm climate multiply it by 30. An example computation would be 70L x 40W x 40 BTU per square foot since you live in a cold weather would have a product of 112,000. This is the size of the heating requirement for your home.

 

To size a home heating system just uses a simple mathematical computation. Viola! You will now have the right temperature for your home in a very cold weather. There will be less stress as you do not have to adjust your room temperature every time.

 

Choosing an oversized furnace will never be a problem to you as you already know the basic computation. Aside from that it can save you money for operational and maintenance costs. The best thing is, your heating system would work efficiently now.