Basic Things You Need To Know About Air Conditioning

Asking a provider of AC services in your town for help with a project is a good way to see that it'll be handled competently. It's important, though, to not just leave the job to the air conditioning technician. You should get your input into the equation, and you'll need to learn about these three basic ideas that matter within the industry.

How Output is Measured

When it comes to the output of an air conditioning unit, you'll commonly hear two measures: tons and BTUs (British Thermal Units). Fortunately, these two measurements can be converted into one another based on some simple math. 12,000 BTUs translates to one ton. For example, a 2.5-ton unit would have an output of 30,000 BTUs. For reference, folks in the industry consider anything that is more than 5 tons to be a commercial-grade setup.

Electricity consumption follows a similarly simple kind of math. For every ton of output your system provides, you can expect it to consume 3.5 kW of juice.

Dealing with Drainage

Something a lot of folks forget about is that providing air conditioning means removing water from the air. This can be especially problematic in high-humidity parts of the country. Roughly speaking, a 5-ton air conditioning unit will generate about 60 gallons of water a day by pulling it out of the air.

Removing this water is important, as it can stagnate and become a place where mold grows. You'll see that many AC services providers also offer plumbing help. The reason for this is that larger AC units need to be tied into the plumbing system. With the exception of larger commercial and industrial buildings, there's little need to worry about adding plumbing capacity to handle drainage as you add air conditioning capacity, as 60 gallons of drainage will be spread out over time. That makes it no more taxing at any given minute than running a high-efficiency shower.

Keeping the Electrical System in Order

One thing you'll want to know is squared away before you begin an air conditioning project is the electrical system at your location. If you have not had the electrical setup inspected by a professional in the last five years, take the time to have an electrician conduct a thorough inspection. Inform them of your intentions with the air conditioning job and provide them with an idea of what you expect the new electrical consumption to be.


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