Regardless of the make, model, and price point of a heating system on the market, your primary focus when purchasing a new heating and cooling system should always be sizing. According to Cory Dishman of Kaiser Air Conditioning & Sheet Metal, which specializes in heating installation in Oxnard, California for homes and businesses, having a system that is large enough to adequately fulfill the needs of your home is of the utmost importance to any HVAC technician. But this is not simply a guessing game in which a specialist estimates what your home needs. There are actual formulas and aspects of your home that need to be taken into consideration, he says.
The most accurate way to determine what size heating unit a home needs is through an energy test that your local HVAC company should provide for you. This takes into account:
- the size of your home
- the layout
- the type of windows in place
- type of insulation and its effectiveness
- foundation the home is on
- the climate of your area
Each one of these aspects, Dishman says, plays an important role in the type of heating unit that he will ultimately recommend. At Kaiser Air Conditioning & Sheet Metal, the HVAC technician who visits your home can record the necessary data, plug it into a specially designed computer program, and deliver your results within half an hour.
If you skip this step and decide to purchase an HVAC unit on your own without understanding how the size of the unit relates to its ability to heat and cool your home, then there will be definite repercussions. If the unit is too small, it will cause the system to overwork itself to try to keep up with the demands of heating and cooling an oversized space. Ultimately, this will lead to the premature death of the system and increased energy bills. Additionally, says Dishman, installing an improper unit could cause temperature swings, which he defines as the rapid heating up of a room that causes the unit to constantly switch on and off.
Besides deciding on the right system for your home, Dishman also stresses the importance of proper installation and insists that homeowners should refrain from attempting to install their own units. Just as you wouldn’t recommend that someone other than a licensed mechanic replace the transmission on a car, only a licensed HVAC contractor should complete this type of installation for you.
There have been plenty of instances, Dishman says, where one of his technicians has been called to a home to fix the mistakes made by an inexperienced homeowner or an unlicensed HVAC contractor who attempted to install or fix the unit, but only ended up making things far worse. It is important for any specialty trade that you insist upon seeing proof of a valid license to perform your required services for you. At Kaiser Air Conditioning & Sheet Metal, Dishman says that providing this information for prospective clients is all part of the process to give them confidence in the work that his company will complete.