Room Air Conditioner Sizing and Choosing Chart

The table below gives recommended air conditioning BTU's necessary to cool a single room. The data in the table assumes that the ceiling over the room is insulated and that the room is not over or is not itself a special heat-producing area such as a kitchen or boiler room.
Table 1: Base BTUs - Recommended Air Conditioner BTUs Number of Rooms Cooled One One One One Several Several Several Several Large Areas Large Areas Large Areas Large Areas Large Areas Large Areas Large Areas Large Areas Large Areas Room Area MINimum sq.ft. . 100 180 270 . 400 500 700 . 900 1,000 1,000 1,100 1,200 1,500 1,700 1,900 Room Area MAXimum sq.ft. 100 / 9.3m2 180 / 16.72m2 270 / 25m2 400 / 37.16m 400 500 700 800 900 1000 1,100 1,100 1,200 1,500 1,700 1,900 2,200 BTUs Needed 4,000 - 6,000 6,000 - 7,500 7,500 - 9,000 9,000 - 10,500 10,500 - 12,000 12,000 - 13,500 13,500 - 15,000 15,000 - 16,500 16,500 - 18,000 18,000 - 19,500 19,500 - 21,000 19,500 - 21,000 12,000 - 22,500 22,500 - 24,000 24,000 - 25,500 25,500 - 27,000 27,000 - 28,500

How To Calculate the BTUs needed to cool a given space: follow this procedure:

1. Calculate the total square feet to be cooled: Measure the size of the room (or rooms) to be cooled, to obtain total square feet. Multiply room length by width for each room and if there are multiple rooms, add the room areas together to get a single number. 2. Read the Base BTUs needed from Table 1 below 3. Add additional BTUs for these factors:
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+ 4,000 BTUs for each room below a ceiling or roof which is not insulated + 4,000 BTUs for a home or residential kitchen included in the cooled area + 1,500 BTUs for each window which receives significant daily sunshine + 1,500 BTUs for a room over a kitchen or boiler room IF the kitchen or boiler room is actively producing heat during the cooling period + 600 BTUs per person over two, if more than two occupants will be occupying the room during the cooling period - 1,000 BTUs if the room is on the shaded side of the building

4. Subtract BTUs from the total required if these factors are present:
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5. Calculate the final total BTUh needed from the above steps. This should place you in the right range of cooling capacity needed. Review the warning below about buying an oversized air conditioner.

How Much Cooling Capacity do we need Per Square Foot of Building Area? How Much Space can a Ton of Cooling Capacity Serve?

Maybe 450 sq.ft. to 1000 sq.ft. of a typical home can be cooled per ton of cooling capacity: that is, one ton (or 12,000 btuh) of air conditioning can cool about 500 sq.ft. of space. Sketch courtesy of Carson Dunlop Associates. But the real answer is, it depends. Some of the factors that affect the ability of an air conditioner to cool a space need to be considered besides just the number of square feet. These include at least the following questions about air conditioning load and cooling requirements:

What are the sun and heat characteristics of the geographic area where the building is located (southern U.S. vs. northern U.S. or Canada, for example)? How much direct sunlight is falling on the building? Is it bright hot sun or only partly sunny? What are the exterior colors of surfaces on which sunlight is falling? How well the building is insulated? How drafty is the building? How many occupants are in the building? What other heat sources (or cooling sources) are in the building?

How high are the interior ceilings? How does air circulate within the occupied spaces? What defects in the air conditioning system need to be overcome, such as duct system errors or damage, dirty filters, blocked cooling coils, etc. ?

Watch out: Don't Buy an Oversized or "Too Big" Air Conditioner

Watch out: Do not buy an air conditioner which is oversized (too many BTUh) for the area you need to cool. You may think that bigger is better, but not in the case of air conditioning. To make a room comfortable the air conditioner needs to both cool the room airAND dehumidify the room air. If the air conditioner is too large for the space to be cooled, the temperature will drop quickly and the A/C unit will shut off before the air has become adequately dry. The room will be either too cold or too humid for comfort. Sketch courtesy ofCarson Dunlop Associates. More detail about how to diagnose and cure an air conditioner that is not dehumidifying can be found at DEHUMIDIFICATION PROBLEMS

Other types of portable or individual-area air conditioners

Heating & Cooling units - capable of both cooling or heating a room using electricity. Basically these units are small heat pumps that are mounted in a building window or wall. Heating/Cooling units will give two different BTUh figures, one for cooling and one for heating. These figures will differ, for example, producing 18,000 BTUh in cooling mode but only 12,000 BTUh in heating mode. The difference between heating and cooling, and the amount of heat actually available will depend also on the outdoor temperatures when in heating mode (as with any heat pump system, the unit cannot provide heat below certain temperatures.)"

Slider or Casement Window units - narrow tall cooling systems which are designed to fit into the narrow space provided by casement or slider windows. Through-wall air conditioners - air conditioning units which are designed to be installed into a metal sleeve which is then itself installed in an opening cut into the building wall, leaving windows unobstructed, or perhaps for use in a room without a suitable window in which an air conditioner could be placed. BTU output is typically a bit more than the smallest window air conditioners but otherwise is similar in range.

Portable air conditioners - units on wheels which are plugged into an outlet but can be moved room-to-room and do not require a window for their exhaust. These cooling units are of modest cooling ability, typically around 10,000 BTUh though some producers such as Sunpentown offer units up to 14,000 BTUh. See PORTABLE ROOM AIR CONDITIONERS for details about portable room air conditioners.

How to Determine BTUs or Tons of Cooling Capacity of an Air Conditioner from its Data Tags See RATED COOLING CAPACITY for an explanation of how to determine the cooling capacity of an air conditioner that is already installed at a building or go directly to these links within that article: to determine the BTU capacity or Tons of cooling capacity of an air conditioner from model number FROM EQUIPMENT RLA # - how to determine the BTU capacity or Tons of cooling capacity of an air conditioner from the RLA number COOLING RULES OF THUMB - how to guesstimate how many tons or BTUs of cooling a building needs
FROM MODEL # - how