Hi

I ilve in a loft apartment that is cool in wither and extremely hot suring summer days in San Francisco. I have floor to ceiling windows - it's a corner unit and the main living area gets sun from sunrise until sun down.

I get confused with choosing an air conditioning unit. The loft has 16 - 18 ft ceilings and is 1100 so ft with the floor to ceiling windows. I have blinds but it is unbearably hot in spite of the blinds.

Most online stores tell you to choose a unit based on sq footage of room but the height of my ceilings create a complication so cubic footage means there is more area to cool down, right?

Can you advise?

Thanks in advance.

Confused in San Francisco

You aren't thinking of a window unit are you? What kind of heating are you using?

You need a 3 ton heat pump. If you oversize the return air vents and make the supply lines larger you will get better efficiency. Your air filter grill should be twice the footprint of the inside unit. Place the unit where it will be easy to wash out the coils. The coils should be cleaned yearly along with the blower.

If you want to use window units then put a two-ton unit (24000 btu) in the large room and smaller units in the other rooms. That should work, but you will need to have a bigger circuit (20-30 amp/ 240 volt) wired for the big unit and other 240 volt circuits for the other units.