Load Calculations Come Before Furnace Replacement for Your Cincinnati Home

by Greg Leisgang on November 20, 2013

Posted in: Furnaces

If you're looking at replacing the furnace in your Cincinnati home, you'll want to make sure you use a contractor who will put in the effort necessary to ensure you have a correctly sized furnace. This means performing load calculations after energy efficient upgrades have been made.  

If you have a hard time keeping your home warm on especially cold nights, your current furnace may be undersized; an oversized furnace turns on and off frequently. Load calculations avoid this. The main problem oversized furnaces have is that they operate less efficiently than they should because their components are excessively large for the task, so they only run briefly before the home is fully heated. Additional cons include increased wear on some components from the short run times and a higher initial purchase price.

A heating load calculation determines how much furnace capacity is needed by determining how much heat your home will need based on several unique factors. The calculation should be done in accordance with Manual J from the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) to ensure all of the factors get appropriately taken into account, including:

  • How well insulated and sealed your home is
  • What your local climate is like
  • The quality and number of windows and doors
  • The size and orientation of your home

The heating load calculation can be done for the whole house or on a room-by-room basis. The room-by-room basis calculation is important for designing ductwork that will deliver the correct amount of heating to each room. It's also useful for determining if your home could benefit from having a zoned system that can offer separate thermostats to control the temperature in different areas of your home.

If you’re looking for a quality contractor to help you with replacing a furnace in Cincinnati, contact JonLe Heating & Cooling. We've been providing top-notch HVAC services to the greater Cincinnati area for over 50 years.

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