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AC size · 2,200 sq ft
What size AC for a 2,200 sq ft house
A 2,200 sq ft house needs anywhere from 1 ton to 5 tons of cooling in the 14 climates below. The low end is a tight 2015 house in Seattle, WA and the high end is a 1985 house with attic ducts in Phoenix, AZ. At the low end 1 ton is a load, not a unit you can order. The 400 to 600 sq ft per ton rule gives 3.67 to 5.5 tons for all of them, and its top end is past 5 tons, the largest size in the residential ducted lineup this calculator sizes against. Check your zone first.
Run your own house in the calculator. It starts with a 2,200 sq ft two-story house in St. Louis, MO, built in 1985 with ducts in the attic.
- Type the 5-digit ZIP of the job. The calculator looks up the climate zone and its design temperatures.
- Enter the conditioned floor area, stories and year built. The form starts at 2,200 sq ft.
- Pick air tightness, foundation and window type, and check the box if the ducts run through an unconditioned attic.
- Read the cooling load and tonnage, then find the row for your climate zone in the table below to see how the envelope changes the size.
Example result for the default inputs
ZIP 63101 · St. Louis city, MO · IECC zone 4A · elevation 470 ft · design 92°F DB / 75°F WB cooling, 9°F heating
Cooling load
29,318BTU/h
≈ 2.5 ton (nearest 0.5) · SHR 0.92
Heating load
47,811BTU/h
- Furnace input bin 60,000 BTU/h at 80% AFUE
- Flagged for a dual-fuel system
- No single residential heat pump carries this heating load, so no heat pump size is shown
Load breakdown by component
| Component | Cooling | Heating |
|---|---|---|
| Transmission (walls, ceiling, floor, glass, doors) | 7,640 | 29,393 |
| Solar through glass | 13,478 | - |
| Infiltration | 2,377 | 10,449 |
| Internal gains (people, appliances) | 2,920 | - |
| Ducts in unconditioned attic | 2,903 | 7,968 |
- These design temperatures are the worst case for the IECC climate zone. BuildSolver estimates ZIP-level values can differ by 2-8°F.
- These are preliminary design conditions. For a permit load, take the design temperatures from ASHRAE Handbook - Fundamentals 2021, Chapter 14.
- A heat pump sized to carry this heating load alone would need 78,809 BTU/h of rated capacity at 47°F, more than one 5-ton residential unit delivers. Plan on furnace heat or a heat pump with furnace backup, and have an engineer check any all-electric design.
For estimation purposes only. Consult a licensed engineer for final designs.
Room-by-room Manual J and branded PDF reports · Pro plan
How the tonnage in the table is calculated
Each of the 28 cells in the table is its own run of the BuildSolver load engine on a 2,200 sq ft house, using the whole-house Speed Sheet simplification of ACCA Manual J 8th Edition. The AC size hub has the full method and every floor area side by side.
- House geometry
footprint = 2,200 / 2 = 1,100 sq ft; side = 33 ftThe engine models a square two-story footprint with 8 ft ceilings, which gives about 2,123 sq ft of gross wall and 1,100 sq ft of ceiling under the attic.- Tonnage
tons = Q_cool / 12,000, rounded to the nearest 0.5Loads are rounded to the nearest half ton, which puts this floor area between 1 ton and 5 tons.- Square feet per ton
sq ft per ton = 2,200 / (Q_cool / 12,000)Computed from the unrounded load. Across this table one ton covers 456 to 2,073 sq ft.
AC size for a 2,200 sq ft house in 14 climate zones
Each row is the same 2,200 sq ft two-story house on a slab with 4 occupants and glass at 15% of floor area. Only the climate zone and the envelope change. The first house column is a 1985 build with average air sealing and ducts in a vented attic. The second is a 2015 build with a tight envelope and ducts inside conditioned space. Tons are rounded to the nearest half ton. Each cell also shows the load in BTU/h and how many square feet one ton covers.
| Zone | Reference city | Cooling design | 1985 house, attic ducts | 2015 house, ducts inside |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | Miami, FL | 92°F | 3.5 tons44,779 BTU/h · 590 sq ft/ton | 2 tons22,059 BTU/h · 1,197 sq ft/ton |
| 2A | Houston, TX | 96°F | 4 tons47,740 BTU/h · 553 sq ft/ton | 2 tons23,582 BTU/h · 1,119 sq ft/ton |
| 2B | Phoenix, AZ | 110°F | 5 tons57,847 BTU/h · 456 sq ft/ton | 2.5 tons28,775 BTU/h · 917 sq ft/ton |
| 3A | Atlanta, GA | 95°F | 2.5 tons32,528 BTU/h · 812 sq ft/ton | 2 tons21,258 BTU/h · 1,242 sq ft/ton |
| 3B | Las Vegas, NV | 100°F | 3 tons34,842 BTU/h · 758 sq ft/ton | 2 tons22,989 BTU/h · 1,148 sq ft/ton |
| 3C | San Francisco, CA | 84°F | 2 tons22,746 BTU/h · 1,161 sq ft/ton | 1 ton14,849 BTU/h · 1,778 sq ft/ton |
| 4A | St. Louis, MO | 92°F | 2.5 tons29,318 BTU/h · 900 sq ft/ton | 1.5 tons19,345 BTU/h · 1,365 sq ft/ton |
| 4B | Albuquerque, NM | 95°F | 2.5 tons29,400 BTU/h · 898 sq ft/ton | 1.5 tons19,683 BTU/h · 1,341 sq ft/ton |
| 4C | Seattle, WA | 84°F | 1.5 tons18,931 BTU/h · 1,395 sq ft/ton | 1 ton12,734 BTU/h · 2,073 sq ft/ton |
| 5A | Chicago, IL | 91°F | 2.5 tons28,651 BTU/h · 921 sq ft/ton | 1.5 tons18,254 BTU/h · 1,446 sq ft/ton |
| 5B | Denver, CO | 93°F | 2.5 tons28,101 BTU/h · 939 sq ft/ton | 1.5 tons18,067 BTU/h · 1,461 sq ft/ton |
| 6A | Minneapolis, MN | 90°F | 2 tons25,933 BTU/h · 1,018 sq ft/ton | 1.5 tons16,921 BTU/h · 1,560 sq ft/ton |
| 6B | Billings, MT | 92°F | 2 tons25,714 BTU/h · 1,027 sq ft/ton | 1.5 tons16,947 BTU/h · 1,558 sq ft/ton |
| 7 | Duluth, MN | 86°F | 2 tons21,224 BTU/h · 1,244 sq ft/ton | 1 ton13,984 BTU/h · 1,888 sq ft/ton |
3 of the 28 sizes above are under 1.5 tons. Those numbers are loads, not equipment sizes, because the ducted lineup this calculator sizes against starts at 18,000 BTU/h.
Only 2 of the 28 engine results land inside the rule-of-thumb range of 3.67 to 5.5 tons, the 1985 house in zones 2A and 2B.
Phoenix, AZ splits the widest. The 1985 house with attic ducts needs 5 tons and the tight 2015 house with its ducts inside needs 2.5 tons, 2.5 tons apart on the same floor area.
The highlighted St. Louis row is the calculator's starting point. There the 1985 house needs 29,318 BTU/h, or 2.5 tons, and a heating load of 47,811 BTU/h at 9°F. Built tight in 2015 with the ducts inside, the same house needs 1.5 tons. A 500 sq ft per ton quote would put 4.5 tons on both. Size each house from its own row, then check the existing ducts and registers before you write the quote.
Standards and data sources
- ACCA Manual J 8th Edition - residential load procedure. The tables use its whole-house Speed Sheet simplification, which gives a single load for the whole house.
- ACCA Manual S - equipment selection against the Manual J load, including the 115% limit on cooling capacity for a single-speed unit. Selection is a separate step and part of the Pro plan.
- IECC 2021 climate zones (PNNL county map) - ZIP to county to climate zone. The zone sets the design temperatures, solar factor and envelope defaults for each row.
What the table leaves out
- Every row is one standard 2,200 sq ft house. On a real job, insulation, glass, orientation and air leakage move the load, and in this table the 1985 and 2015 builds in Phoenix, AZ already land 2.5 tons apart.
- Each row uses the worst-case design temperature of its IECC climate zone, from 84°F in the San Francisco zone to 110°F in the Phoenix zone. BuildSolver estimates ZIP-level values can differ by 2-8°F, and ASHRAE Handbook - Fundamentals 2021, Chapter 14, lists the city values.
- The engine treats both stories as one zone. The page cannot split the load between floors, and a bonus room over a garage is not modeled.
- Whole-house load only. Room-by-room Manual J and Manual S equipment selection are part of the Pro plan.
Common sizing mistakes on a 2,200 sq ft house
- Quoting 5 tons because the house is 2,200 sq ft. The 400 sq ft per ton rule gives 5.5 tons here, more than residential ducted equipment carries, so a quote lands on 5 tons, the largest size in it. The rule hands the same answer to a 1985 build in Phoenix and a 2015 build in Seattle, because floor area is all it reads. The St. Louis, MO row puts the 1985 house at 2.5 tons and the 2015 house at 1.5 tons.
- Reusing the tonnage from a job in another market. Carry the Phoenix, AZ tonnage to a Seattle, WA job and you have sold 3.5 tons more equipment than the house asks for.
- Sizing off the nameplate of the unit coming out. It may have been picked by rule of thumb, and matching it repeats whatever oversizing the last installer chose.
- Letting the heating load set the AC. Duluth, MN asks the 1985 house for 68,594 BTU/h of heat and 2 tons of cooling. Pick the furnace and the AC from their own loads.
What to check on a 2,200 sq ft house
Most 2,200 sq ft calls are one of two houses. The common one now is a two-story builder house from the last twenty years, bedrooms upstairs and a two-story entry off the front door. The other is a two-story or split level from the 1970s with the same floor area and almost nothing else in common, which is what the two columns on this page are for.
- Find the air handler before you pick a column. In a conditioned mechanical closet with the trunk inside the framing, the house behaves like the 2015 build. On a platform in a vented attic, it lands somewhere between the two columns whatever the build year says.
- A two-story entry with glass over the door drops solar gain into a space with no return in it. The whole-house number cannot see that, and the second floor pays for it every clear afternoon.
- Count the supply runs on each floor before anyone says the word zoning. A house this size usually feeds the second floor through two or three branches off one trunk, and a zone damper on an undersized upstairs trunk raises static pressure instead of fixing the bedrooms.
Questions about AC size for 2,200 sq ft
What size AC do I need for a 2,200 sq ft house?
Climate and construction decide it. In the table on this page the answer runs from 1 ton in Seattle, WA to 5 tons in Phoenix, AZ. Chicago, IL puts the same house at 2.5 tons as a 1985 build and 1.5 tons as a 2015 build. On this page any size under 1.5 tons is a load, not a unit you can order. The ducted lineup starts at 18,000 BTU/h, so those houses take a mini split. Enter your ZIP and the house details in the calculator for your own number.
How many BTU does a 2,200 sq ft house need for cooling?
The cooling loads in the table run from 12,734 to 57,847 BTU/h. Per square foot that is 5.8 to 26.3 BTU/h, so no single BTU per square foot number fits a house this size. 3 of the 28 runs on this page round to a size under the 18,000 BTU/h floor of the ducted lineup, where the job goes to a mini split. Run the actual house in the calculator above for its number.
Is a 5-ton AC too big for a 2,200 sq ft house?
The 400 sq ft per ton rule gives 5.5 tons here, past the 5-ton top of that lineup, so the largest unit a rule-of-thumb quote can land on is 5 tons. ACCA Manual S limits a single-speed cooling unit to 115% of the Manual J load. By that limit a 5-ton single-speed unit is oversized for the 1985 house in 13 of the 14 climates and for the 2015 house in 14 of them. Going down from 5 tons stops at 18,000 BTU/h, 1.5 tons, where the ducted lineup this calculator sizes against ends. Loads under that number belong to a mini split.
What size furnace goes with a 2,200 sq ft house?
The heating loads in the same runs go from 11,978 to 68,594 BTU/h, the highest for the 1985 house in Duluth, MN. With the engine's AFUE default for the year built, those loads call for furnace inputs from the 40,000 to the 100,000 BTU/h bin. At the warm end one run comes in light enough that the engine asks for electric resistance heat rather than a furnace. The furnace size calculator shows the heating result for a single ZIP.
Why does a 2,200 sq ft house need a different size in Phoenix and Seattle?
Design temperature and solar load. The table uses 110°F for the Phoenix zone and 84°F for the Seattle zone, so the same 1985 house needs 5 tons in Phoenix and 1.5 tons in Seattle.
Can I quote a 2,200 sq ft job from this table?
Use it for the first conversation with the homeowner. St. Louis, MO puts the same 2,200 sq ft at 2.5 tons or 1.5 tons depending on how the house was built, so run the load for the actual house before you order equipment. Room-by-room Manual J and Manual S equipment selection are in the Pro plan. If the job needs a permit, ask the building department whether it requires a load report from ACCA-approved software.
Used on the same job
Size the actual house in chat
Start with the ZIP. Then describe the house you are quoting, including the windows, insulation and where the ducts run, and the assistant runs the same load tools, asks for what is missing and explains the result in terms you can show the homeowner.
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