How to Calculate Home Heating Needs

When planning or renovating your central heating system, one of the most important details is calculating the amount of heat your home's individual rooms (and therefore the building as a whole) require. Anyone you contract to install a heating system will undoubtedly do a calculation of his own--but it always pays to have an idea of what you'll be needing in mind, especially as some of the help you hire may be prone to overestimating. Fortunately, Waterford Stanley has developed a relatively simple calculation for determining your home heating needs. It yields the necessary heat in British Thermal Units (BTUs).

• 1

  Start with a single room. Multiply the length of the room (in feet) by its width and height. This yields its volume in cubic feet.

• 2

  Consider the number of windows and doors in the room, as well as the amount of insulation. If there is what you consider a "normal" amount of all these things, multiply the room's volume in cubic feet by 5. If you feel there is an unusually large number of windows and doors, proceed to Step 3.

• 3

  Multiply the room's volume in cubic feet by 6 if it has an abnormally high number of rooms and doors, or if it has an unusually low amount of insulation.

• 4

  Determine whether or not the room faces north. If so, disregard the previous two steps and instead multiply its volume in cubic feet by 7.

• 5

  Repeat this calculation (the Step 1 measurement times either 5, 6 or 7) for each room in your home, then add the numbers together for the total. This gives you a rough idea of how many BTUs are needed to heat your home.