Calculate air conditioning capacity KW/btu.

How do you calculate the capacity of an air conditioner?

How much cooling power in kW is required for the room you want to cool can be calculated in steps with the explanation below. Standard cooling requires 30 to 50 watts of power per cubic meter. This is a simplified capacity calculation. You should also take into account the room that the air conditioning must cool and whether this room, for example, contains a lot of glass or has a flat roof.

Calculate air conditioning cooling capacity

The kW required cooling capacity of a room is the capacity that the air conditioning system must be able to deliver in order to properly cool a room. When buying an air conditioner, it is important to know what the cooling capacity of the room you want to cool should be. The calculation of the cooling capacity is quite complicated and depends on, among other things, the application of the room. If more people work in a room, there is a lot of glass in the facade and or if it has a flat roof, this can have a major influence on the heat load.

Simplified cooling capacity calculation

A simplified way to calculate the cooling capacity of an air conditioner can be easily calculated with the 3 steps below.

Determine the contents of the room

You calculate the volume of a room by multiplying length x width x height. For a space of 5 meters long, 4 meters wide and 2.5 meters high, you arrive at: Space volume: 5 x 4 x 2.5 = 50 m3

Determine the heat factor of the room(s) to be cooled

Roughly speaking, three dimensions are used as factors for a room:

  • Factor 30 : Well-insulated space, no flat or directly sloping roof, little electronic equipment and few people.
  • Factor 40 : Less well insulated space, lots of glass and/or many people working and/or a lot of electronic equipment.
  • Factor 50 : A flat or sloping roof, south-facing space, poor insulation, many people and electronic equipment.

Calculate cooling capacity

To calculate the cooling capacity, multiply the volume of the room (step 1) by the heat factor (step 2). You will then receive the required capacity for the space to be cooled in Watts.

For example: a room of 5 meters long, 4 meters wide and 2.5 meters high with a shelf where many people work on the computer.

  • Step 1: Space volume: 5 x 4 x 2.5 = 50 m3
  • Step 2: Factor 50
  • Step 3: 50 x 50 = 2500 Watts

To properly cool the room, you need an air conditioner of at least 2500 Watt, also 2.5 kW (2500/1000).

The power of an air conditioner is also measured in BTU/hour (British Thermal Unit), where 1 Watt is equal to 3.4121 BTU/hour. In the example above we arrive at 2500 x 3.4121 = 8530.25 BTU. So then you choose a 2.7 kW or 9000Btu