Air Conditioner BTU Calculator For Heating And Cooling Your Room

If you have a room that has lot of traffic, example customers moving in and out of a store or school kids in a classroom or a church or a warehouse, then you need to factor that into the btu's you will need. There are two scenerios here, body heat and loss of quality air. Everytime a person opens the door and walks in or out of the room you loose that filtered fresh air to the outside or adjacent rooms. Plus humans produce body heat that is approxmately factored into this calculations as follows:

• Person seated at rest, 350 Btu/Hr

• Seated, Light Office Work, 420 Btu/Hr

• Standing Light Work, 640 Btu/Hr

• Walking 3mph, 1040 Btu/Hr

• Bowling, 960 Btu/Hr

• Heavy Factory Work, 1600 Btu/Hr

• Heavy Athletics, 1800 Btu/Hr
  
  

Normally single pane windows are less energy efficient as oppposed to multi-pane windows. This needs to be factored into determining the btu's you need in the room. As a window with Low-E coating and multiple panes will block sun and outside weather elements much better than a old style single pane window for example.

Sunlight radiations bring heat into the house through the windows or uninsulated walls. This is an important factor that needs to be considered when determining the btu's for a room.

Does a fan help with heating and cooling for the room?

Absolutely!

Remember cold air falls down and hot air will rise up. In winter time you can run the fan in one direction to blow all the hot air back down that rises to the ceiling to provide better comfort. While you can run the fan in opposite direction in summer time to maintain upwards motion air up to provide better comfort in the room. This allows the unit to work more efficiently.

Why are exterior walls relevant to heating and cooling of a room?

The exterior walls of a house have several functions. Not only do they define the shape of a house, but at the same time they play important role in separating the house’s interior elements from the outdoors, and to do this effectively they have to block the weather with systems that insulate, shed water, and repel moisture and air infiltration.
That being said, metal building absorb more heat that a masonry walls, in which case you would normally buy higher btu's if your room is within a metal building for example.

How does geographical location effect btu calculator outcome?

If you live is colder weather conditions, your btu's for cooling requirement will be much lower than normal. For example a 300 sq ft room normally requires 9000 btu in Florida, but may only need 7000 btu's in Michigan if you do not live in extreme heat conditions. Also, for example a cabin in the mountains at 3000 ft elevation will require smaller btu's as opposed to what a house would need in Arizona desert conditions.

What if room is a open floor plan or one big area is divided into multiple areas?

If Kitchen is connected to living room and dinning area for example, it is better to choose the hottest room of all from our provided selection. This way you are not below required btu's for the whole area. So in this case you would choose Kitchen. Even if you are little more on Btu's the DC inverter technology units will automatically reduce or increase the compressor speed and produce right amount of Btu's required for the room accordingly. For example if you install air conditioner in a open floor plan area that is only 500 sq ft, but has a kitchen. Normally for such rooms you require 12000 btu, but since you have a kitchen connected we recommend 18,000 btu to help with all the heat from cooking. Now if you purchase a DC Inverter unit, it will work on 18000 btu when someone is cooking in the kitchen, but automatically using smart technology it will reduce the speed and work on 12000 btu when no one is cooking in the room.

Why should I consider other areas that are open to main room?

Air will flow in any/all areas unless there is a door or wall to block it. Without any barrier, cold or warm air will keep circulating in all open areas. In example no. 1 living room is connected to a small entertainment room. In which case you need to measure the entertainment room's sq ft as well to factor in the btu's. Similarly, in example no. 2 office lobby is connected to the hallway, in which case you need to measure sq ft of the hallway as any air that is being blown into the lobby will automatically be lost to the hallway area thereby needing more btu's.