Heating and Air Company that does J Manual test (Madison: new home, calculation)

[joallen001]

Soon to be building a new home and I am looking for a good HVAC company that does J manual testing and possibly blower testing. I want to make sure my unit is sized properly verses someone who says you need x amount of tons per x amount of sq ft. I have called around and several companies don't even know what a j manual test is which scares me...

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated..

[LCTMadison]

Originally Posted by joallen001

Soon to be building a new home and I am looking for a good HVAC company that does J manual testing and possibly blower testing. I want to make sure my unit is sized properly verses someone who says you need x amount of tons per x amount of sq ft. I have called around and several companies don't even know what a j manual test is which scares me...

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated..

I often use Dave Fuller with All American Comfort Consultants, and he did a "load test" for me last year on a house with an undersized unit to determine the correct size unit for the house.

He didn't refer to it as a "J manual" test....but it was about an 8 page DETAILED report with all kinds of graphs and calculations that I'll be honest....I had no clue how to decipher, it might as well have been in Chinese. It was WAY beyond the "tons per square foot" estimate.

Dave's great, has done personal work for me as well as many clients. He's an honest guy and knows what he's talking about.

All American Comfort consultants

[r x f]

Originally Posted by LCTMadison

He didn't refer to it as a "J manual" test....but it was about an 8 page DETAILED report with all kinds of graphs and calculations that I'll be honest....I had no clue how to decipher, it might as well have been in Chinese. It was WAY beyond the "tons per square foot" estimate. [/url]

Sounds like a Manual J calc to me! From what I've seen (I'm not in the industry, but HVAC is one of my interests), most guys don't do a Manual J calc to size units. They use rules of thumb (ex. 500 ft^2 per half ton for these parts) and it usually works out pretty well. Just as important as a Manual J is a Manual D (ducting). Once again, most experienced HVAC guys nail down ducting design pretty well, but when they get it wrong, you get uneven heating in various areas of the house. Sometimes fine tuning or seasonal adjustment (when going from heating to cooling) of your dampers can alleviate the issue.

Lastly, Manual J/D calcs are trash-in/trash-out. Your HVAC guy needs to not only be familiar with the Manual J/D procedures, but have experience and training performing them.

[LCTMadison]

Originally Posted by r x f

Sounds like a Manual J calc to me! From what I've seen (I'm not in the industry, but HVAC is one of my interests), most guys don't do a Manual J calc to size units. They use rules of thumb (ex. 500 ft^2 per half ton for these parts) and it usually works out pretty well. Just as important as a Manual J is a Manual D (ducting). Once again, most experienced HVAC guys nail down ducting design pretty well, but when they get it wrong, you get uneven heating in various areas of the house. Sometimes fine tuning or seasonal adjustment (when going from heating to cooling) of your dampers can alleviate the issue.

Lastly, Manual J/D calcs are trash-in/trash-out. Your HVAC guy needs to not only be familiar with the Manual J/D procedures, but have experience and training performing them.

I pulled up the report, and it does state "Calculations Approved by ACCA to meet all requirements of Manual J 8th Addition".