When it comes to heating and cooling, it's important to understand the size of the space you're trying to regulate. The amount of BTUs (British Thermal Units) needed per square foot varies depending on the zone you're in. In Zone 1, you need 30 to 35 BTUs per square foot, while in Zone 2, you need 35 to 40 BTUs per square foot. But what about a 5-ton air conditioner? How many square feet can it cool?The answer is that it will cool down quickly, but the air conditioning unit won't be able to remove enough moisture.
To make the unit work properly, you'll need two-stage condensers and air controllers with variable speed drives. To determine the size of the house, you can divide the load or capacity by the floor area. For example, a 3,000-square-foot home with a 3-ton air conditioner would have 0.001 tons per square foot. If you round up, that's 1000 square feet per ton. Out of 167 zones, only 53 were less than 1000 square feet per ton and only 20 areas were below 700 square feet per ton.
That means that only 12% of the areas in this group could have come close to having properly sized refrigeration equipment if the 400 to 600 square feet per ton rule were used. The average load of the 75 homes was about 1,200 square feet per ton. In those 63 homes, 151 individual heating and cooling systems were selected. As you can see, the columns have been shifted to the left, indicating that the air conditioning equipment was larger than the loads.
That's why the average capacity of the systems selected was 856 square feet per ton, making the average capacity 28% higher than the average cooling load (1192 square feet per ton).Designing a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system starts with getting the right size. Look at the number of square feet per ton to see if you're in the ballpark. If it's less than 1000 square feet per ton for newer homes, then something is wrong or the house isn't as efficient as it should be. For example, I have a vintage house from 1920s with 2400 square feet and I installed a 1-ton modulating Midea window shaker (basically a minislit in a can) mounted on the loft window and office at the top of stairs. With all interior doors open, it covers 100% of my 1% refrigeration load (local temperature compartment %3D83F) at an average interior temperature of mid-70s F.
That's a ratio of one ton for every 2400 feet under design conditions. Without the window unit in place, running an oversized central air with 5-ton ducts, the duty cycle never exceeds ~ 50%, even when temperatures are in mid 90° F outside (as now), implying a load ratio of one ton for every 1000 feet at outdoor temperatures 10° F or more above design temperature of 1%.If you apply the general rule of 20 BTU per square foot, you can see that a 3-ton air conditioner cools spaces of approximately 1,800 square feet. You can check out the best central air conditioners with prices for 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 ton air conditioning units here. In conclusion, when it comes to cooling your home or office space with an AC unit, it's important to understand how many BTUs are needed per square foot and how many tons your AC unit is rated for. A 5-ton AC unit will cool down 2000 square feet quickly but won't be able to remove enough moisture from the air without two-stage condensers and air controllers with variable speed drives.
It's also important to understand how many square feet each ton is rated for so that you can make sure your AC unit is properly sized for your space.
