The Stiles Blog

Expanding your home by adding on a new addition is an exciting time. Maybe you will use the extra space for a home office, craft room or a man cave. Perhaps you want an additional bedroom for one of your children or for guests to stay in while they visit, or you might even need to add an entire in-law suite onto your house. Maybe you want to expand the space you relax in by adding an all-season room that you can use year-round. Whatever expansion you are adding, you must consider how it will affect your HVAC system. Here are three options for heating and cooling your home’s new addition.

• Extend your current HVAC system
  Contact an HVAC professional to see if your existing HVAC system could work for your new addition. They will calculate the required size for your HVAC system by doing a Manual J load calculation, which is a detailed analysis of your home’s central air conditioning and heating needs based on factors like your home’s square footage, ceiling height, the type of insulation you have, the type of windows you have, the climate in which you live, if you have a basement or slab, what color your roof is, etc.
  
  You don’t want an oversized HVAC system for your home, and you also don’t want a system that is too small to heat and cool your home because it will run constantly, trying to heat and cool the entire house and running up your energy bill. A properly-sized unit will work much more efficiently to heat and cool your home, not running too little or too much. It will help your energy bill and make your home less susceptible to moisture issues. If your current HVAC system will work, perhaps all you will need to do is expand ductwork into the new addition. (Check out these tips for saving money on your home’s heating and cooling from the U.S. Department of Energy.)
• Install a larger HVAC system
  When the HVAC professional calculates your Manual J load calculation, the result may be that your current HVAC system isn’t sufficient enough to include the new addition. If so, then you will need to upgrade and install a larger HVAC system as well as add ductwork to accommodate the new addition.
• Add a ductless HVAC system
  Perhaps you don’t want to install a larger HVAC system, or maybe extending ductwork for the addition won’t be easy or will cost more than you want to spend. If either of these is the case, then you could consider adding a ductless HVAC system specifically for the addition.

Building a new addition onto your home is thrilling, and it also brings with it additional complications when it comes to your home’s plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems. Stiles Heating, Cooling, & Plumbing is here to help make your new addition’s heating and cooling needs as easy as can be. We can calculate the best size HVAC system for your home (including the new addition) and help you decide what the best option is for your family. Contact Stiles Heating, Cooling, & Plumbing to get started.