Manual J room by room heating and cooling load calculations
Have you ever wondered why one room is too hot or another is too cold? Have you ever experienced being uncomfortable even when your thermostat tells you the room temperature is 70F? Is your floor too cold and your ceiling too hot? Don’t worry you’re not alone and we know how to resolve these kinds of problems. It’s unfortunate that it’s normal to have such low expectations for home comfort. Most home heating and cooling systems were never designed to meet the house’s demands on a room by room basis. It’s not rocket science but it does take a little thought to make sure the right amount of energy is delivered to each space. A well designed system can maintain very uniform temperatures; room to room, ceiling to floor and story to story. When comfort is at stake it’s important to change not just the air temperature, but all the surface temperatures in the building.
It’s pretty rare for companies to do a Manual J. Most heating and cooling systems are designed by guesswork and rules of thumb. On the other hand, there are some companies who do building load calculations but miss the critical step of verifying that their designs work after they are installed. This is called commissioning a system. When we commission our systems we confirm our original load calculation, which results in finely tuned systems that provide true comfort. In order to continue getting better at what we do we must always seek feedback on our original assumptions and make modifications along the way. It might sound intuitive, it’s just not common.
