HVAC and New Construction, Home Additions and Multi-Family Dwellings

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HVAC and New Construction, Home Additions and Multi-Family Dwellings

HVAC is a fairly complicated concept, and homeowners who want to save money and live a more efficient lifestyle need to pay attention to their HVAC systems. However, if you are building a new home, adding an addition to your home or trying to heat and cool a multi-family dwelling, you have to pay even more attention to your HVAC system. This blog has tips and posts on HVAC in all of those scenarios as well as ideas on HVAC in other situations. Hi, my name is Mary, and as the person who balances the budget in our home, I have learned a lot about HVAC systems over the years. I know how to pick efficient designs, how to keep the bills low and how to make the most of your HVAC system. Please explore these posts for ideas and help.

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Air Conditioner Installation: 3 Air Balancing Tips to Prevent Hot and Cold Spots in Your Home

For an AC to promote indoor comfort during summer, it must supply the right amount of conditioned air to each room. If some spaces receive less air than others, your home will develop hot and cold spots. Air balancing ensures that your AC delivers enough airflow to keep the indoor spaces comfortable. As you install a new AC in your home, consider these air balancing tips to eliminate warm and cold spots.

Room-by-room load calculation

Every room in a house has unique air conditioning needs. Therefore, determining the cooling load for your entire home isn't enough. You must calculate the load for each room as well. Failure to do so will cause some rooms to receive more or less conditioned air, leading to hot or cold spots. Check the following factors that determine the cooling load for individual indoor spaces:

  • The size of the room
  • The number of windows
  • Solar orientation
  • Insulation

For example, insulated rooms have a lower cooling load than uninsulated ones. Rooms that face the afternoon sun may have a higher cooling load than south-facing ones. Therefore, to balance the air in all the rooms, you need to cater to each room's cooling demand.

Proper ductwork design and sizing 

If you have a ducted cooling system, it's crucial to assess the sizing and design of the ductwork. Poorly designed or sized ducts can cause warm and cold spots in your home. For example, larger rooms require larger ducts to provide adequate air to the space. If you use the large ducts in a small room, the space may be uncomfortably cold.

Use each room's cooling load data to design the ductwork for the specific space. For example, if a room has a larger cooling load, it requires larger ducts for even cooling. Conversely, smaller rooms require smaller cooling ducts. Provide enough supply and return vents in each room to facilitate proper airflow.

Air conditioner zoning

Ductwork sizing and design go hand in hand with AC zoning. If the rooms in your home have varying cooling needs, it doesn't make sense to control the air from a central point. If you do so, there will be cold and warm spots all over your home. Air conditioner zoning promotes air balancing by allowing you to control the air for each zone individually.

Create unique zones for the rooms based on their cooling loads. Therefore, rooms with a higher load can receive more conditioned air than those with a lower cooling load. Besides balancing the air, zoning also allows users to set their preferred temperatures in each room, which increases efficiency and comfort.

Use the above tips to eliminate hot and cold spots during the summer. For ductwork design and residential air conditioning installation services, consult an HVAC contractor.


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