What is the right room size for an 8,000 BTU air conditioner to cool, and what other factors should you consider in your room cooling capacity calculations?
If you have recently just purchased an 8,000 BTU air conditioner or are looking into getting one, determine the size of the room you are looking to cool.
It is important to note that different BTU ratings will be able to cover a certain square feet of area coverage, so ensuring that your room size is suitable and sufficient for an 8,000 BTU air conditioner to handle is crucial, so that you can avoid any disappointments should the air conditioner struggle to cool a room too big or over cool a room too small. Room size is crucial.
What size room can an 8,000 BTU air conditioner cool?
As previously mentioned, an air conditioner’s BTU cooling capacity will mean that it can cool an area that is a certain size, suitable for it to cool efficiently with no problems.
When it comes to an 8,000 BTU air conditioning unit, it will generally be able to cool spaces from 350 square feet in size to 550.
Eight thousand BTU air conditioners are some of the best-selling, as they can cool rooms that are 16 x16, 18 x 18, 20 x 20, and even cool small apartments.
What are other factors to take into consideration in determining the room size?
Since the room size is particularly important to ensure that your air conditioning unit will work properly, you will also need to take into consideration other factors that will contribute to the amount of heat that will be generated in the room you are looking to cool with your 8,000 BTU air conditioner.
Determine the heat load of the room to help you get more perspective on the room size and amount of heat you are looking at cooling. There can be certain aspects of a room that will generate more heat in the space.
These can include the number of people that can occupy the room, either in the time that the air conditioner can be running or at any given point, the placement and number of windows, as well as the number of appliances that occupy the room, specifically appliances that can also generate some heat.
You would need to consider the baseline cooling capacity as it relates to the size, and then make some amendments to your calculation on the room size, depending on the other heat load factors that you have to consider.
Things that can contribute to the heat load of the room you are looking to cool can be the amount of shade the room gets throughout the day. The sun will be a significant contributing factor when it comes to the amount of heat generated in a room.
If the room you want to cool down gets direct sunlight, you will need to add an additional 10 percent to the room size’s cooling capacity, but should the room be getting more shade throughout the day, you can subtract that 10 percent from your room size cooling capacity calculations.
The number of windows is what will contribute to your room getting more sunlight. When it comes to the number of occupants, consider that humans also give off body heat.
If the room tends to be occupied by one to two people, then you can leave your calculations as they are, but if the room often has more than two people occupying it, then you will need an additional 633 kJ/hr for every additional person.
Another factor to consider in your room size calculations is the amount of lighting and other heat sources that are in the room.
Light bulbs tend to generate heat when they are on. Other heat-emitting appliances will also add on to the amount of heat that is accumulated in the room.
What are some measurement formulas to determine the room size?
When it comes to calculating the square footage of a room to determine the right BTU air conditioner to get, there are different formulas for different rooms of different shapes. Square footage is determined by the formula: length x breadth.
For a simple square room, the formula will remain the same. For a triangular room, the formula would be length x breadth x ½ to get the square footage.
So, when it comes to the room size, an 8,000 BTU air conditioner will be able to cover areas to the size of 350 to 550 square feet. There will be other factors to consider in your room size cooling capacity calculations too.