A larger air conditioner should take more moisture from the air in proportion to its size, right? Right? WRONG**. If you’re given an “upgrade” to a bigger apartment, you may be at risk if you don’t consider a few things.
As a first step, you must realize that tonnage refers to how much heat an air conditioner can remove from your house in one hour. When building, a Manual J calculation is used to establish the proper unit size for your area. This formula estimates the required tonnage depending on a variety of factors. HERE is an accurate computation. Then, let’s suppose a ton of cooling capacity is defined as 12,000 BTUs (British Thermal Units). Installing a greater tonnage unit than what Manual J (or other HVAC calcs) suggests allows you to reach the desired temperature in your room much faster. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and That’s a fantastic idea! However, this is not the case. It’s a good idea to cool the equipment down fast, but it’s bad to cool it down too rapidly. The amount of dehumidification your HVAC system produces is directly related to the time it spends running or cooling. As a result of the proper size, both occupant comfort (limiting sensible heat) and adequate space drying are maintained (controlling latent heat). As a result, before starting any replacement work, have your HVAC specialist check to see whether it’s suitable to change the tonnage of your existing systems.
Then comes the fun part: Most people believe that the more my system is running (by turning on the fan), the better! WRONG** once again. The air handler’s fan motor uses warm air to warm the coils. To keep our area cold, we use this equipment. Because of this, the warmed air is also condensed on the cold coils. A good analogy is the glass of soda/ice you have on the counter. On the glass, you’ll see water droplets forming. Similar to how your home’s humidity levels are reduced, this phenomenon evaporates moisture. Putting the fan on “ON” halts the cooling process, but the air continues to flow over the condenser coils. When this occurs, all the previously present liquid water in the atmosphere re-evaporates. Because of the damp coils, the water evaporation is re-emitted into the atmosphere. An increase in humidity occurs because it undoes part of what it had done to remove it in the first place. Your HVAC specialist may be able to help you with a stand-alone dehumidifier or an in-line dehumidifier if you notice that your humidity levels are consistently high and the set-point temperatures are being reached.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments section. Any feedback on whether or not this was useful would be much appreciated.
Upgrading your equipment or running it with the fan on may be necessary for certain scenarios or conditions** An HVAC specialist best handles changes like this since they deviate significantly from the usual.
**There may be situations or conditions that warrant up-sizing of your equipment or operation of the equipment with the fan in the ON position. Those changes, in our opinion, are best made by a HVAC professional and will typically be clear deviations from the norm.
