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What Size Air Conditioner Do I Need for My Home in Palm Desert, CA?

Depending on the type of air conditioner you have in your home, the unit can last from 10 to 25 years. Smaller units will wear out faster, but most large systems will last closer to 25 years with good maintenance. When the time comes to replace your AC, you’ll want to make sure the new system efficiently meets your cooling needs. To make that determination, there are several factors Breeze Air Conditioning in Palm Desert, CA will help you consider.

Know How Much Square Footage You Need to Cool

You’ll need to know how much living space you’ll need to cool with your new air conditioner. While you can look at each room and guess about your cooling needs, having more specific measurements can help you choose an AC system. Consider the dimensions of your living spaces since wall-mounted or window units may not properly cool segmented rooms. You’ll want to choose a unit that can effectively cool every room in your home.

Evaluate the Quality of Your Home

Many homeowners fail to consider home maintenance when choosing a new air conditioner. An older home is likely to have hidden air leaks that wouldn’t affect newer homes. As the home’s framing and structure deteriorate over time, loose floorboards, outdated windows and doors, and other flaws will let cool air escape your home. Poor insulation within your walls or in other parts of your home can also lead to air leaks.

Get an AC That’s Sufficient for Your Entire Family

There are a couple of different ways the size of your household will affect your cooling needs. Primarily, each person in your home generates body heat and raises the ambient temperature. Larger families will need more cooling power to fight off the temperature increases caused by body heat.

Secondly, your family might not gather together during the day. While a parent is preparing dinner, children might be doing homework in their bedrooms or playing video games in the living room. These activities will increase your cooling needs, and you’ll probably need a larger system to sufficiently cool multiple areas at one time.

Outside Temperatures Affect Indoor Cooling Needs

Living in a desert has a significant impact on indoor air quality and climate control. Since summers in the desert are extremely hot, you’ll need a cooling system that can efficiently manage your indoor temperature. This might mean investing in a larger unit, or you might need a higher-quality system that can endure heavy use in extreme climates.

You probably know that even a slight desert breeze brings sand, dirt, and other contaminants along with it. You’ll want an air conditioner with a high-quality filtration system to keep those particles out of your breathable air. A larger system that’s designed for heavy use might be more effective at filtering out contaminants as it pushes treated air into your home.

How Palm Desert, CA HVAC Experts Measure Cooling Power

While a Breeze Air Conditioning technician can help you measure the cooling power you’ll need, it can help to know how AC power gets calculated. Air cooling power is determined by BTUs (British thermal units) or tonnage. One BTU is equal to the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree (Fahrenheit).

Tonnage measures the power of central air conditioning systems. You would need one ton of cooling capacity to equal 12,000 BTUs an hour. Most homes use central AC systems that provide one to five tons of cooling power. Commercial air conditioners require much higher tonnage.

Schedule a Duct Inspection

It’s easy to forget that the condition of your ducts will affect cooling efficiency and indoor air quality. For example, dirty ducts will recirculate dust and debris. This leads to poor air quality, and that debris can increase the rate of wear and tear damage your AC suffers. As dust and dirt get into the air conditioner’s components, it will function less effectively and use more power to cool your home.

A dust inspection will help you find damage that’s causing air to leak from your ducts. If you have older ducts, you might need a more powerful air conditioner to compensate for duct leaks. You might also have insufficient ductwork to reach all parts of your home. If this is the case, a larger air conditioner can cool your home more effectively.

Trust the AC Pros to Keep Your Palm Desert, CA Home Cool This Summer

Breeze Air Conditioning meets all of your heating and cooling needs with maintenance, repairs, and new system installation services. Whether you need an AC replacement or an HVAC tune-up, we’ll help you extend the lifetime of your equipment and keep your home comfortable all year round.

Contact Breeze Air Conditioning in Palm Desert, CA to request an estimate or AC service.