Energy Matters Forums

[Windaroo Resort]

As a rule of thumb to work out the size of an ac for the area get the sqm of the floor area x 150 watts so say you have a 4 metre sq room you will need a 2.4kw unit. Thats a rough way to work it out but works in most circumstances otherwise do a proper heatload to take all factors into account.

I hate those excuses for ac's they sell, useless

[offgridQLD]

That's a very general Gide, isn't that 16m2?. There are factors in a room that can make a huge difference . like north/ south side of the house, windows, insulation, ceiling height, concrete floor, walls facing outside or to adjacent room.

We all have experienced homes that have a room you could bake bread in (everything working against it) and other rooms that have everything in there favor (bordering on actually needing any artafical cooling even on the hottest of days)

In Qld ist often a case of not a lot of heat load but the need to dry the air out ( 30c day that feels like 45c because the air is soking wet)

Like you say dig deeper and do a thermal load analysis on the room and get the correct unit (they last long time so it's worth getting it correct)

I visited a few online calculaters one was very in depth and had a lot of questions and measuments and materials that needed to be entered but it was worth the effort to fill it all in.

Kurt

[Windaroo Resort]

That's why we use Camel

[Tracker]

....the sqm of the floor area x 150 watts so say you have a 4 metre sq room you will need a 2.4kw unit....

and it is likely a good estimate.. our 12KW unit easily covers the 10+M2 family room, and affects much more of the house..
..
.

[offgridQLD]

Are we talking a 10m2 room 3.33m x 3.33m or 10m x 10m - 100 square meter room?

I would be more inclined to suggest a range from say 0w - 180w per sq m depending on if your house is made from one layer of cling wrap in central Australia or cool room paneling in Tasmania. I think I was around the 60w mark for my 2nd lounge room 50 sq meter (a lot was in it's favor and cooling was more for dehumidifying)

Kurt

[Smurf1976]

Just for the record, for heating an area the general rule of thumb (at least down here in Tas) is 100 Watts per m2 assuming intermittent use.

Obviously that's just a guide, but a proper calculation usually comes in fairly close to that.

Heating tends to have fewer variables than cooling, since you don't have the issue with direct sunlight that adds greatly to cooling loads.