Home Guides Home Home Improvement Troubleshoot, Fix and Repair Two & a Half Ton Vs. Three Ton Air Conditioner Email Reddit Calculate your cooling needs before selecting an air conditioner. The cooling capacity of an air conditioner unit -- how much heat it can remove from a home in an hour -- is measured in tons. Choosing a unit the right size is important. Selecting a unit too large will result in the unit turning on and off frequently while selecting a unit too small will result in the unit running too often and not being able to adequately cool your home. Differences in Air Conditioner Size The unit of measurement used for air conditioners is the British Standard Unit -- with each ton equal to 12,000 BTU's -- and units typically ranging in size from one to five tons. Let's compare the cooling capacity of a two-and-a-half ton unit versus a three ton unit in San Francisco, which is located in Zone 1 of the country, according to AC4Life. A two-and-a-half ton air conditioner has 30,000 BTU's and can cool a home sized 1,201 to 1,500 square feet while a three ton unit has 36,000 BTU's and is designed for homes 1,501 to 1,800 square feet.

These figures will range depending on which zone of the country a house is located in, as well as the home's age and energy efficiency. ac condensing unitReferences Home Depot: Air ConditionersAlpine Home Air Products: Choosing Air Conditioner SizeAC4 Life: System Sizing Help Photo Credits Jupiterimages/Stockbyte/Getty Images Suggest a Correction What Is a 10/30 Exchange in Real Estate? donate ac unitThe 1031 exchange in real estate refers to the ... weight of a 5 ton ac unitHow to Increase the Income From Your Real ... In today's market it is very possible to increase the ... What Is a Contingent Real Estate Sales Offer? Understanding what a contingent real estate sales ... What Does Cream Puff Mean in Real Estate? The term cream puff in real estate essentially refers ...

So you’re thinking about having your air conditioner replaced. Maybe it’s noisy and expensive. Maybe it doesn’t keep the house comfortable anymore. Or maybe it’s just getting old. After all, 10 years is the maximum lifespan of central Air Conditioner these days. You might be pleasantly surprised to find out that technology has made switching more attractive. For one thing, the newer efficient air conditioning systems are considerably more efficient. You’ll probably end up spending less on electricity this summer. Second, because of this increased efficiency, you might be able to get by with a smaller unit. When it comes to your Air Conditioner, bigger isn’t always better. The first step, before you even decide on the brand and choose some of those fancy options– like fan-only mode, or two-stage operation– is to have your house sized. In HVAC talk, ‘sizing’ refers to an assessment of the space you want to keep cool and dry. Your contractor will conduct something called a Manual J (from the Air Conditioning Contractors of America).

A Manual J takes into account many factors, like how many stories there are in your home, the number and size of doors and windows, how much insulation you have, and, of course, the climate in your region. But before you hire an HVAC contractor, it pays to have a little background on the subject. Air conditioners cooling capacity is measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units). You will often see AC units described as ‘3-ton’ or ‘2.5-ton’. Each ‘ton’ is worth 12,000 BTUs. So if you buy a 2-ton unit, it will have a 24,000-BTU capacity. As a very rough gauge,about 25 BTUs are needed to cool each square foot of space. So if your home is 2,000 square feet, you’d need about 50,000 BTUs, or a 4-ton unit. However, that’s just the beginning. Then your contractor will factor in all of those other things– plus others like exposure, occupancy, insulation, and the number of rooms. The other variable is efficiency. Older models required more BTUs. Today’s central air conditioning systems are up to 50% more efficient than those made 40 years ago.

So you might be able to get by with a smaller unit. Sizing is even more important because some of the newest brands are not sold in half-ton sizes. So if you are replacing a 3.5-ton unit, you might need to choose between 3 tons and 4 tons of cooling capacity. Because of the efficiency factor, your contractor may advise you to ‘go low’. There’s a lot to like about the new technology. But before you begin, it pays to bone up on the basics. Check out the “Get Educated” section and impress your contractor! Air conditioning professionals mathematically determine the proper unit size. In the heat of the summer, one thing's sure to keep you cool and comfortable: a properly sized air conditioner. But buying an A/C unit can overwhelm you as you see all the available sizes, features and brands. The unit size is the most critical. An undersized unit will never cool your home enough, and an oversize unit is nearly as bad. Square Footage Estimations The simple way to calculate a home's air conditioner size is to use a rule of thumb.

According to this common but somewhat inaccurate method, you need 1 ton of air cooling capacity for every so many square feet of living space. While there's some dispute over the exact amount, an often-used amount is 600 square feet. A 2.5-ton unit, then, theoretically would fit a 1,500-square-foot home. Sizing Inaccuracies One problem with estimating air conditioning size based on square footage is that every home is different. An average home in Florida, for instance, needs more cooling power than if it was situated in Michigan. Given that even Energy Star provides a square-feet-to-BTU chart (with 12,000 BTUs equating to 1 ton), the estimation is valid for a homeowner to use -- but illegal for contractors. Never compare your home to a neighbor's similar-sized house. Manual J Calculations To obtain a precise calculation, you must consider your home's unique factors: What region is it in? How good is the insulation? What direction does the house face? Some websites use online calculators to enable you to perform a closer estimate.