HVAC

BTU, tonnage, and airflow — rule-of-thumb sizing for AC, heat, and ventilation.

8 calculators

The instinct with heating and cooling is to round up, and it is the wrong instinct. An oversized unit satisfies the thermostat fast, shuts off, and starts again — short-cycling that leaves humidity in the air, wears the equipment, and costs more to run than the right-sized unit would. These calculators give you the rule-of-thumb figure that tells you which size class you are in: room BTU, tonnage, furnace output, mini-split capacity, and the ventilation numbers that go with them. Treat the result as the sanity check it is. A room-by-room Manual J load calculation accounts for your insulation, windows, and orientation, and it is what settles the question.

Start here

All HVAC calculators

Rule-of-thumb sizing — a Manual J calculation by a professional is definitive.