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Common Questions About Heating, Ventilation and Cooling
How to calculate furnace size for your home?
Shopping for a furnace is a lot different then shopping for other appliances. There are as such very few stores where you can walk in and compare furnace models, prices and sizes. To get first hand information on how to determine the furnace size for your home and to get the best furnace for yourself you will have to get in touch with heating and cooling companies.
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Asking the heating firms for literature of the manufacturers on the variety of furnaces manufactured is the first and right step towards selecting the best furnace for your home. Contacting a local gas utility firm as well as a local contractor will also be pretty beneficial with regards to deciding upon the adequate furnace size for your home.
When you are going to make a choice of a particular furnace model do ensure that it meets the requirements of your home like heat loss etc. It should have required features which you particularly require or like. The contractor will help you with calculating the heating requirement of your home. This way you will get to know which furnace size will be ideal as well as which one will be more cost efficient too.
Heat loss calculation using the method prescribed in CSA F280, "Determining the Required Capacity of Residential Space Heating and Cooling Appliances." is what should determine the heat requirement of your home. However you should be careful that with this method a thorough measurement and examination of your home needs to be done. This will determine the insulation levels and airtight envelope of the house.
Also if you have a furnace already the contractor might arrive at a reasonably accurate calculation of the heat requirement of your home based upon the working of that furnace. Do ask for the details of the contractors calculations. If you feel that the contractors method has been appropriate then you can ask him to suggest a suitable furnace type and based upon this you can proceed to decide which furnace size will be best for your home.
Note: This article is currently under review by our editors.