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When choosing a new heating and cooling system for your Central Valley home, you have plenty of factors to consider. One such factor is how large your new HVAC system needs to be for the best performance and comfort possible. The adage one size fits all may apply to some things, but your HVAC system isn’t one of them.

The best way to size up your home’s heating and cooling needs before HVAC installation is via a manual J load calculation. If you have no idea what this is or how it benefits your home, don’t worry. The following tells you everything you need to know about the process and its impact on your home comfort.

What Manual J Load Calculation Is

A Manual J load calculation is the first step towards choosing and installing your new HVAC system. Manual J, also known as a residential load calculation, is a protocol contractors use to determine a home’s precise heating and cooling requirements.

Developed by the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, Manual J lets contractors accurately calculate heating and cooling needs on a room-by-room basis, as well as for the entire home. With the accurate data through Manual J load calculation, contractors can choose an HVAC system that’s right-sized for your home.

A major advantage of Manual J is that it’s far more accurate than the traditional rule of thumb once widely used by contractors. Using rule of thumb often results in an HVAC system that’s several times larger than it needs to be in terms of heating and cooling load.

How Your Home Benefits From Manual J

No two homes are built the same way. Differences in square footage, insulation usage, window types, and ventilation requirements can have a sizable impact on your heating and cooling needs. Additions, renovations, and even old age can change many of these characteristics, making an accurate assessment essential for installing the right HVAC system.

A common mistake that many contractors and homeowners make is choosing an HVAC system that’s too large or too small for your home. Many of these mistakes come from using rule of thumb to calculate heating and cooling loads. Simply replacing your existing HVAC system with one that’s roughly the same size can also lead to problems, especially if your current system wasn’t properly sized in the first place.

A Manual J load calculation gives you and your contractor a clearer picture of your home’s heating and cooling demands. When it comes to right sizing your HVAC system, following the Manual J protocol offers plenty of benefits:

• You’ll get an energy-efficient system that’s precisely tailored to your home comfort needs, eliminating the clammy, uncomfortable feeling an oversized system offers.
• You’ll get an HVAC system that costs less to purchase and install, as oversized units often add extra costs to a typical HVAC installation.
• You’ll spend less on maintenance and repairs since oversized HVAC units often suffer from short-cycling and other issues that add wear and tear on equipment.
• You’ll spend less monthly on electricity since your correctly sized HVAC unit doesn’t use more energy than it needs.

For the average modern home, having extra HVAC capacity simply means wasting energy and money. A Manual J load calculation gives you the most efficient heating and cooling solution possible.

What to Expect During a Manual J Load Calculation

A proper Manual J load calculation takes a broad range of factors into account. In addition to the square footage of each room in your home and total square footage, a typical load calculation also includes:

• The number of current occupants living in your home
• The type and number of windows your home uses, along with window coverings
• The number of exterior doors on your home and their material type
• The type, amount, and R-value of insulation in the attic and walls
• The presence of vaulted ceilings in your home
• The type of material on your roof
• The direction your home faces

Your contractor may also perform a blower door test as part of the Manual J load calculation. The blower door test pressurizes the indoor spaces in your home, revealing the amount of air infiltration that goes on in your home. Your home’s level of air infiltration can have a drastic impact on your HVAC system’s final size.

All of the above information then goes into an ACCA-approved software program. The program crunches the numbers and returns the final results of the load calculation, letting your contractor know exactly what size heating and cooling solution is ideal for your home. You may also see your contractor go through the load calculation using pen and paper, but only to verify the software’s results.

A Manual J load calculation is essential if you plan on an HVAC replacement. The experts at Derek Sawyer’s Heating & Air Conditioning can help take care of your heating and cooling needs, from installation to regularly scheduled maintenance. Call us today.

Whether you have a small greenhouse or a large indoor vegetable operation in the Modesto area, your choices of heating, cooling, and ventilation solutions can make your indoor growing space more productive. Here is what you should know.

Reduce Solar Radiation for Cooling, But Add Options

Most greenhouse vegetable plants want daytime temperatures between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If average temperatures are too high or too low, plants can stop setting fruit or bolt and begin producing seed.

In a sunny, semi-arid location like the Central Valley of California, keeping daytime temperatures down is your greatest challenge. The Modesto region is considered a Mediterranean climate according to the Köppen Climate Classification . Once the bright California sun comes streaming into a greenhouse, the internal air can rapidly rise due to the abundant solar input.

One trick to reduce temperatures in a Mediterranean-climate greenhouse is to use shade cloth. Cover part or the entire greenhouse during the most intense hours of sunlight to limit the amount of solar input.

However, some plants will suffer if they do not receive enough daytime light. When your greenhouse does not stay at optimum growing temperatures during sunny days, and reducing solar radiation does not work, talk to your HVAC professional about using additional cooling methods.

Add the Right Ventilation to Remove Hot Air

Exchanging greenhouse air for fresh outside air is a great way to cool the air temperature inside the greenhouse and reduce excess humidity. Efficient greenhouse ventilation systems often include a large air intake on one side of the greenhouse and a large air output vent or fan on the opposite side of the greenhouse.

Greenhouse ventilation is installable as a passive system of cross ventilation. Passive systems, when situated at the right levels and angles on greenhouse structures, work best in coastal areas and areas with brisk winds.

Forced-air ventilation systems usually have vented greenhouse openings and large electric fans. Fans may blow air into or out of the greenhouse to adjust the internal greenhouse temperature.

For the best results, forced-air or passive ventilation systems should be placed at greenhouse ridges, sidewalls, and gables. Experts recommend a combined cooling surface on structural vents that is no less than 15 to 30 percent of a greenhouse’s total square footage.

Your HVAC professional can assess your structures individually to determine the best placement for greenhouse forced-air ventilation systems. When combined with a high-efficiency refrigerant-based cooling system, a proper ventilation system in your greenhouse can keep your plants from overheating during a particularly hot summer season or high-heat event.

Go With Forced-Air Systems for Convenience

Forced-air ventilation systems and refrigerant-based greenhouse cooling systems are less messy than evaporative cooling systems like fog coolers or fan and pad coolers. Forced-air cooling systems also require far less maintenance than evaporative coolers.

Misting equipment on evaporative foggers need continual maintenance. Contaminated fog can spread diseases and plant pathogens throughout the greenhouse. Evaporative cooling pads need constant water. The pads need protection from direct sunlight, salt, and sand.

Multiple fans must sometimes run non-stop when using fan and pad evaporative cooling systems, so the total water and electricity usage can be significant for the fan and pad method. The fans must also be arranged in precise sequence to work with the wet pads. Zonal air conditioning and ventilation units take up less space on walls while providing effective greenhouse climate

Calculate Adequate Heating Needs

In the Central Valley, winter temperatures rarely fall below freezing. However, some plants can wither from cold temperatures that are well above freezing.

To provide year-round protection for your greenhouse plants, install a heating system of some type to augment the sunlight’s radiant warmth. Find the correct methods online to calculate how many British thermal units (BTUs) of output you need from a greenhouse heater, or ask your HVAC professional for help calculating your potential winter greenhouse heat loss.

You have many options for greenhouse heaters from wood-fired stoves to natural gas furnaces. Choose a heater or heating system that can keep your greenhouse warm even if the temperature is 15 degrees below your area’s average minimum low temperature for the year. Select a heater that uses fuel you can easily obtain and afford.

Some types of convenient greenhouse heating systems that are used in California include:

• Electric
• Natural gas
• Propane or LP
• Infrared vacuum

Your HVAC professional can help explain the various professional and commercial greenhouse heaters available. The heating pros can also safely and securely install your greenhouse heating system so it meets all codes and building requirements.

If you need a new greenhouse heater or a headhouse office air conditioning unit, contact Derek Sawyers Smart Energy Heating & Air. We source and install a variety of commercial furnaces and ventilation systems for your Central Valley, California, greenhouse and all of your commercial structures.

Business owners who are committed to reducing facility operating costs and energy use also likely help their companies become more sustainable. Your facility’s air conditioning (AC) system is an ideal place to begin lowering your energy use. Here are five strategies to keep energy costs down while keeping your commercial structure cool.

1. Boost Your AC System Efficiency

You can change the internal temperature of your commercial structure during the hottest months without investing in huge power bills for non-stop AC operation. One way to help your AC system work more efficiently is to address heat that enters your building.

If a structure’s envelope or exterior shell has cracks, gaps, rotting places, or other openings, heat enters the structure. The pressure from an AC system helps draw in the hot air wherever leaks exist in the structural envelope.

Boost your AC efficiency by sealing your building from roof to foundation. Add insulation, weatherstripping, and caulk to areas including windows, doors, attic, and exterior walls to keep cool air inside and warm air out of the building.

2. Let There Be Cooler Light

Incandescent lights only convert 10 to 15 percent of the energy they consume into producing light. Some of the wasted energy becomes excess heat in rooms heated with incandescent lights.

Use energy-efficient lighting to lower the temperature in rooms and give your AC system a break. Install timers on lights so no bulbs or fixtures are left on in rooms where they’re not necessary.

Natural sunlight can help cut lighting costs, but the sun’s rays can also heat up rooms and work against AC efficiency. Balance the need for light with the need for cool work and client spaces as you address glass and sunlight issues.

Install thermal window coverings or treatments including draperies, blinds, shades, or curtains to keep intense sunlight out of commercial spaces. Window films are another option to reduce heat transfer into rooms through glass windows.

3. Target Key Spaces on Hot Days

Avoid being wasteful with cool air in your commercial structure. You definitely want your staff and customers to be cool, and you certainly need to protect sensitive assets including computers and servers. However, you don’t necessarily need to cool every single space in your commercial structure.

Close or partially close AC vents in unused offices, meeting rooms, closets, and storage areas. Unblock vents in rooms where AC is a necessity. Install timers or have another thermostat-control system in place to turn up the AC thermostat when the commercial structure is unoccupied.

If your commercial AC system is ready for an upgrade, consider having your HVAC professionals install zonal AC systems. Zonal or split AC systems deliver custom cooled air to individual rooms or spaces.

With a zonal system, you can keep your passionate but hot kitchen staff chilled without freezing out the customers in the dining room. Your data storage room can stay safely cool while your offices remain comfortable for everyone.

4. Enhance Your Fan Game

Consider installing ceiling fans in the hottest spaces of your commercial structure. A ceiling fan allows you to increase AC thermostat settings by four degrees Fahrenheit without reducing human comfort.

Individual workstations and workers should be encouraged to use portable fans as long as the fans are safe and don’t impact other workers, services, or products. If only one worker complains about the heat, addressing the problem on an individual level saves you from having to increase AC operation across the board.

Have a policy in place to turn off fans in unoccupied rooms. Fans cool people directly via the windchill effect and won’t change the temperature in a room.

Another way to use fans to lower cooling costs is to install variable speed fans on your AC system. Modern multi-speed AC fans allow AC systems to run more efficiently.

Rooms aren’t under- or over-cooled by constantly blasting air when you have variable-speed fans to blow cooled air at moderate rates as needed. Your AC components don’t constantly cycle on and off or run for excessive periods of time when the fan blowers operate at variable speeds.

5. Maintain Your AC Equipment

The above steps won’t significantly lower your energy-cost bottom line if your AC system is neglected or in need of repair. A poorly maintained AC system must work hard to overcome neglect from clogged ducts, dust, loose wires, wobbly fans, and other issues.

Check and service your commercial AC systems at least once a year with qualified HVAC professionals. A professional HVAC service checks dozens of key areas of the system and repairs problems before they lead to AC failure.

When you change your AC filters regularly, follow the above tips, and schedule routine maintenance of your commercial AC system, you protect your assets and keep your building more comfortable. A serviced, clean, and smooth-operating AC system is a greener AC system and will work more efficiently for your business throughout the hottest seasons.

Save on AC energy costs when you schedule inspection of your commercial AC system in Stockton, Fresno, Modesto, Chico, or Sacramento by contacting Derek Sawyer’s Heating & Air Conditioning right away. We service commercial structures throughout Central California and offer emergency AC services, too.