HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BTU FOR YOUR HOME?

Just got your key to your home? But you are stuck with the decision of which air conditioner is right for your room. Chill, we got you covered. We will help you understand the calculation of the BTU. Not forgetting other key factors could contribute to heat.

WHAT IS BTU?

BTU is a shorthand for British Thermal Unit, which would be a measurement of how much energy your air conditioner consumes to remove heat from your home in an hour. Although it may appear highly scientific, BTU is a significant number that may help you estimate the type of air conditioner you need for your home's size.

CALCULATING THE RIGHT BTU

Simply multiply the length of your room in feet by the width of your room in feet, and then multiply by 25. This will provide you with the BTUs required to appropriately cool your space. It only needs a simple multiplication!

POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN PICKING THE RIGHT BTU

1. “Which floor?”

Typically, the top floor of the house will receive more heat and its share of sunlight. This is logical because the top floor directly borders the roof, which absorbs and transmits heat from direct sunlight. Meanwhile, the floors below would be insulated from that direct sunlight by the top floor. As such, if your room is on the top floor, we would recommend that you adjust the BTU upwards by 10%.

2. Mr. Golden Sun

Again, the rooms in a house may face direct sunlight or are mostly in the shade. This, once again, will alter the quantity of humidity that builds in the space and must be eliminated. If the room faces the sun and generates a lot of heat, especially during the warmest times of the day, we propose increasing the cooling BTU needed by 10%. In contrast, if the space is largely in the shadow or does not receive enough direct sunshine, you can cut the BTU estimate by 10%

3. Hot Stuff

Our household appliances also produce a lot of warm energy. This is highly common in appliances with significant electrical usage, such as refrigerators. If you're estimating the BTU for your kitchen, which will include a lot of heat-generating appliances like the stove, fridge, ovens, and so on, we'll want to account for the heat that the air conditioner will have to remove. In these circumstances, for areas such as the kitchen, we propose adding 4000 BTU to the above-mentioned figure.‍

WRONG BTU? WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

If you don’t pick the right BTU, you are either choosing one that is too low, or one that is too high for your room.

Low BTU

If you choose an aircon with a BTU that is too low, it will result in longer cooling times, a poor cooling capacity, and also a higher electricity bill. Because the air conditioning unit is underpowered, what will happen is that it will have to operate for a longer period just so that it can bring the room to the best temperature. And because it is operating longer, that then impacts the electricity bill and costs you more in energy in the long run.

High BTU

When an air conditioner is too big, the cooling happens quickly, but the humidity extraction cannot keep up. This means that even though it is colder, moisture remains in the air and begins to condense, making you feel humid and sticky. Furthermore, because the air conditioner is very strong, it will have to stop and restart its cooling cycle frequently. This increased workload on the compressor reduces the lifespan of your air conditioner.

Given the circumstances, it is vital that you select the correct BTU for your air conditioners – especially in a tropical place like Singapore.

ULTIMATELY

It goes without saying that getting the right size of your air conditioner goes back to the size of your room. Bigger doesn’t mean better and smaller doesn’t mean power saving. If you are unsure of getting which air conditioner, you could always talk to your trusty air conditioner technician.