Quote:
Originally Posted by tuccillo
All square footage is not the same. The heat load on the additional space is a function of the orientation of the space (east, west, north, south), the amount of window area, the types of windows, whether you have shade from trees, insulation values of the walls and celiing, etc. Also, if the net effect of opening the sliders is longer runtimes for the AC this is not necessarily a bad thing. ACs work more efficiently when they have longer runtimes during the hottest part of the day instead of cycling on and off multiple times per hour. It is possible that your system is oversized enough to handle the additional space despite that the fact that is was sized by the required heat load calculation (aka Manual J).
If you only see longer runtimes during the hottest part of the summer then you might be OK. If the new space faces to the northeast this is more likely than if it faces to the southwest. If you see continuous running and the AC can not maintain the temperature you have set on the thermostat (say it is several degrees warmer than you want), then you may want to consider adding a minisplit system as you don't have enough capacity to handle the new space.
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We all get it. Point is this. Lanai gets inclosed, sliders get opened. If it works, great, you beat the system, money saved. If not, add a ton or so of Mitsubishi, won't disturb the new work, all is now good.