Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine March 2024

HVACR NewsMagazine March 2024

Tech News

new system is to be compatible with the home. While most in our industry have heard to the point of ad nauseum, “be careful to not oversize” , some still fail to understand latent capacity and how the performance of the system may be hampered. In many instances, lower total capacities of top of line equipment has saved the contractor from oversizing. Looking at the box the contractor sees a thirty-six in the model number and believes it performs at 36,000 btu. When adjusted capacity is calculated for both sensible and latent capacity, the system may not be suitable as a two ton heat pump in the south. Another factor for winter time comfort is too often overlooked. Fuel fired heating appliances dry the air leading to lower humidity. Many regions of our nation

require humidifiers on fuel fired heating to maintain comfort. Heat pumps have minimal capacity to influence wintertime moisture. The heat pump coil is warm and will dry the air only if infiltration is limited. Generally speaking, the vast majority of the country’s load calculations reflect double the heating load as compared with the cooling loads. Remember that heating loads even in south Texas can be 30% greater than cooling loads. This fact tells us to look at load information in the winter with a critical eye. We often miss the point cold is more of a health threat than heat is. Again, air changes and latent loads are valuable information prior to changing to a heat pump. A surprising number of homes have basements. In fact, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and other states