Is a Bigger Air Conditioner Better?
There are many reasons why your air conditioner may be underperforming.
Your system could be low on refrigerant, your evaporator coil could be clogged, the filter
could be dirty, or the air ducts that lead to each room in your house could be damaged
or crushed.
These problems can lead someone to think their AC is undersized, and they should get a bigger
air conditioner.
In this video, I want to tell you why getting a bigger AC may not be the best idea.
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Hi, I’m Greg Fox from Fox Family Heating, Air Conditioning, and Solar.
As the Sacramento area grows outward, new neighborhoods have sprouted up very quickly.
After the haste, many folks I’ve talked to have complained that their air conditioner
seems to be undersized.
And sometimes they are right!
Sometimes the HVAC contractor that installed that system didn’t consider the house has
10-foot ceilings instead of the usual 8 ft ceilings.
That isn’t the only thing we take a look at either.
In older homes and newer homes, the square footage of the house, the type of windows
and doors they have, the orientation of the house, trees that might be covering the house,
as well as the insulation levels in the house are used to figure out the proper size for
a home’s AC unit.
If your home’s air conditioner is undersized, you’ll know it because it will just run,
and run, and run.
Even on 85- and 90-degree days.
That’s warm, but nothing compared to the average of 22 days a year we experience 100+
degree days here in the Sacramento area.
Most air conditioners these days are design to be efficient to 95 degrees or less.
Anything hotter than that, and EVERYONE’S air conditioners are going to run non-stop.
This is the way it is in a lot of our homes around the area.
But for some people, they think they should get a bigger size system.
Here are some reasons I think you should consider when trying to move to a bigger system:
Your air ducts are sized for the size system you have now.
If you get a bigger system you can really affect the static pressure of the system.
Static pressure is like the blood pressure in your body.
If your heart was too big for your body, it could cause complications with your blood
pressure, right?
Well it’s the same with the static pressure of your HVAC system.
The bigger air conditioner and its compressor won’t be able to operate under the same
comfortable conditions as it would if it was properly sized.
This will lead early system failures of your new HVAC system.
A bigger system is also not going to feel as comfortable for your house.
Humidity isn’t as big a deal out here in California, but in other areas of the country
it is.
Either way, the comfortability factor is compromised when you get a bigger system.
Imagine this.
When you turn on the AC in your car on a hot day, the air comes on full blast until you
start to feel nice and cold in there.
Now, turn that AC back off, and its starts to feel muggy and strangely warm too quickly.
The car walls, seats, leather and other things in the car haven’t gotten cool yet.
That’s the same thing you’ll experience in a house with too big of a system.
Sure, the thermostat might satisfy at the temperature you’re asking for more quickly,
but it kicks right back on quickly too.
This can really mess with the humidity levels in your home because the system hasn’t run
long enough for it to do its job, which is to cool your house AND dehumidify the house
at the same time.
Ideal humidity levels in our homes here are around 45-55%.
Anything more than that and it really starts to feel sticky in there.
Another reason to size it right is because now that your larger system is constantly
turning on and off all day on these hotter days, the motors will wear out faster.
The most damaging time for a motor, especially your $2000 compressor is when all that damaging
heat and energy slam into that motor to get it running.
Sure, it levels off once its running but the starting and stopping is what really hurts
those expensive motors.
The right size system runs for longer times but cools your house more effectively by getting
your walls, your furniture, the carpet and ceilings cool as well as the occupants in
the house.
That’s why getting it right is so important.
If you’re an HVAC technician watching this video, don’t just go into the house and
say, “Oh yeah you’ve got a 2.5-ton system in your house, so that’s what we’re going
to go back with.”
You MIGHT BE going back with that same size system, but at least know for sure that’s
what size your customer needs by doing a proper load calculation of the house and its surroundings.
An HVAC system is one of the most expensive things people buy for their homes.
It would be devastating to buy too small of a system or too large of a system.
You want to really get it just right!
I just went to a family’s house in the Natomas area.
Lots of newer homes have been built in this area.
This particular home had a 3.5-ton system on a house that I measured out at 2300 square
feet.
Normally this 3.5-ton system would definitely be considered too small for this house.
Thing is, this was a house that had two thermostats.
Also known as a house with two zones, or a zoned house.
One upstairs and one downstairs.
Zoned houses are designed to cool one floor at a time.
Not the whole house.
Watch my video on “How to Cool a Two-Story House” for a better strategy on cooling
this house.
I’ll leave it at the end of this video.
Basically though, I just set the schedule on their thermostat (which had never been
set up before) to cool the downstairs living area during the day, and the upstairs sleeping
areas starting around 7pm.
These folks were told by another company before mine to just set it to their desired temperature,
which was 74 degrees, on both floors and press the HOLD button on the thermostat.
That’s why when I went into their home to give them an estimate for a new system, they
were really focused on getting a bigger system; because that 3.5-ton system just could not
keep up with that big ole house all day.
The temperature in the home was actually getting higher throughout the hot days.
Each zone was only about 1300 square feet.
But they had 12 foot ceilings, 20 year old vinyl, south facing windows, a south facing
wall that is getting hammered by the sun all day, AND those walls are a part of the main
living room downstairs and the master bedroom upstairs.…So they can literally feel the
heat radiating through their walls into those rooms.
With some activity during the day upstairs, especially around the afternoon hours.
All this was taken into consideration as I told them the size of their system could actually
go down a half a ton, but considering everything about the house, the 3.5 ton would be just
fine.
Getting a larger AC than you need might sound appealing, but it’s torture on your new
system.
It probably wont last as long as it’s supposed to, and you’ll be buying a new system sooner
than you should.
Well, I hope this video has helped you understand the importance of not getting an oversized
air conditioner for your home.
If you have any comments about the proper sizing of the air conditioning systems in
your area, leave a comment below.
I’d love to start a conversation about this with everyone.
If this is your first time watching our channel, please click subscribe down here on the bottom
right.
And, if you click that little bell next to it, you’ll be notified of all our videos
as they come out.
Thanks so much for watching, and we’ll see you on the next video!