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Air Conditioning

Cooling needs are minimized with

  • extra insulation in the envelope,
  • reflective foil in the attics,
  • low solar heat gain, highly insulating Kalwall Nanogel skylights
  • low-e coatings on the Pella windows and Simpson 7002 French doors,
  • and wide eaves that reduce the summer sun shining into the windows.
A Manual J calculation estimates 65 KBTU/hr (5.5 tons) cooling required. A slightly smaller 5 ton Bryant Puron heat pump was installed to maximize efficiency, on the assumption that the thermal mass of the house will allow it to coast through the hottest days.

The Energy Saving Products RPM-100E fan coil is mounted in the attic and the cooled air is distributed through the high velocity Energy Saving Products system. This system requires eight outlets per ton of cooling, or forty outlets in the house. A Manual J calculation gave the cooling load for each room, so the appropriate number of outlets were installed in each room.

The programmable thermostat is installed just outside the kitchen on the wall outside the powder room.