Here in Fresno, heating installation is a serious business. Our winter nights can get surprisingly cold in the Central Valley, and your heater needs to reliably combat them for many years to come. A heater that isn’t right for your property will cause you unnecessary headaches, as well as monthly heating bills that are higher than they need to be. In particular, the size of the heater plays a huge role in its efficiency: not its physical size (though that may be a factor depending on the space you need to fit it into) but its heating capacity as measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units). Here’s why having the proper sized heater is so important.
Generally speaking you need about 50 BTUs of heating capacity to heat one square foot of space. This is a very rough estimate and can be changed by factors such as the amount of insulation in your home and its exposure to sunlight. A trained professional can make an accurate assessment and determine how many BTUs you need to adequately heat it.
As you may suspect, a heater that produces too few BTUs won’t be able to do its job. It will work too hard – increasing wear and tear on its components – and you may never feel warm enough in certain parts of the house.
At the same time, a heater that produces too many BTUs may cause an equal number of problems. That may seem counter intuitive, but in fact it makes perfect sense. Heaters use the most amount of energy (and create the most strain on their components) when they’re starting up or turning off. Accordingly, you want your heater to run at a steady pace for at least 15 minutes at a time, possibly more. A heater that produces too many BTUs for your space will cycle on and off too rapidly, which also increases energy consumption.
In order to work with maximum efficiency, a heater thus needs to follow the Goldilocks Rule: neither too small nor too large but just right. That’s why having the proper sized heater is so important. In Fresno, heating installation service is provided by the experts at Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning. We can ensure that your heater is properly sized for your living conditions, so give us a call today!