How To Calculate Air Conditioner Footage

If you're in the market for an air conditioner, one number that is important to pay attention to is BTU, number on the box.

The amount of BTUs an air conditioner is capable of outputting is directly related to the square footage of the house it can fit into.

By using only the BTU rating you can quickly calculate how many square feet that particular air conditioner will be able to cool.

How to Calculate Air Conditioner Footage

Find out how many BTUs a particular air conditioner uses to cool a home

Find out how many BTUs a particular air conditioner uses to cool a home. The BTU rating of an air conditioner will be in a variety of places, including on the box and in the unit's manual. If you're shopping for an air conditioner in a store you can also have a sales person look up this information for you if you cannot find it yourself.

Divide number of BTUs of a particular air conditioner by 35

Divide the number of BTUs of a particular air conditioner by 35, as one BTU can cover about 35 square feet of space. The number you get will be an approximate number of square feet a particular air conditioner can cover. For example, if an air conditioner has a BTU output of 6,000, dividing that number by 35 indicates that air conditioner can cover about 171 square feet of space.

Determine if air conditioner you're looking at matches square footage of your home

Determine if the air conditioner you're looking at matches the square footage of your home.

If the air conditioner you're looking at only covers 171 square feet but you know that you have 400 square feet of space in your home that needs to be cooled, you need to look at a larger air conditioner.