Business & Finance

How to Estimate HVAC Ductwork?

2 Mins read

The power of an HVAC system might be directly proportional to its size but doesn’t mean that you will benefit from buying an oversized HVAC system for your house. They need to be sufficiently sized, depending on the size and area of your house. If it is too small it will have to run continuously in order to give the necessary amount of conditioned air. But keep in mind, this can be dangerous to the components and cause wear and tear.

 

However, a unit that is too big will keep switching on and off, putting a load on the compressor and other parts. The energy bills will also be high.

Importance:

The HVAC ductwork cost estimate needs to be carried out in regards to the size of your ductwork and the size of the HVAC unit. The wrong sized ducts will cause issues the same as the ones caused by the wrong sized unit. It will put too much pressure on your unit. Duct sizing depends on numerous factors like size of your house, air flow velocity, friction loss and static pressure of the HVAC system. All professional construction companies hire HVAC installation cost estimator to get a clear picture of cost.

Sq footage of your house:

The size of the duct work is not only dependent on the size of the house but also on the size of each room. You need the gauge the sq footage of the whole house as well as different rooms to find out about the duct work sizing. This should be done by an HVAC expert. A famous method is the HVAC duct sizing rule of thumb, even professional contractors use this method. It is a simple and efficient method, you need to install an air conditioner of one-tonne capacity for every 500 sq feet of the floor area of your house.

Cubic feet per minute:

Cubic feet per minute are used to figure out the velocity of air needed to heat or cool each individual room of your home. The air flow is directly proportional to the size of the duct work. It is vital to find the CFM of each individual room before deciding the size of ducts to be installed. The calculation requires the size of your HVAC unit in tons to be multiplied by 400, the total needs to be then divided by the square footage of your house.

Friction loss rate of ducts:

The air flow from the system also relies on the rate of friction loss of ducts. Contractors can comprehend the static pressure for the HVAC unit, throughout the length of the ductwork. The rate in turn depends on a number of factors like the length of individual ducts, number of coils, filters, dampers, etc. Getting professional contractors for this is recommended.

All in all:

Duct design calculation should be carried out by professionals, they make use of tools and calculators to calculate the house and duct size, only this way you can get accurate numbers.