Joe,

To answer your question, I been doing heating & air conditioning and geothermal to long.

Comfort Tech

That sounds like a bit of a dodge.
The reason I ask is you sound new to earthlinked and geo in general. Your rule of thumb (math skills aside) show a distrust for geo or an uncanny number of uninsulated farm houses in your service area. In the Lansing MI area, I would expect a 3000 sf house (sans garage) to use a 4 or 5 ton system, though I have no rule of thumb. I use HVAC calc as it is simpler than Elite which I own as well though both conform to manual J and are therfore valid.
As you have declared yourself a pro and are offering advice and product endorsement, your credentials would be pertinant.
As for mine geo since '96, heating and cooling since '88, mechanical contractor and boiler installer licenses in '93, mechanical inspector since '99. Small shop, I average about a dozen geo systems a year as well as boilers and furnace or ac's.
j

Joe,

The rule of thumb is loose talk when someone ask you for just a rough talk of what would
take to heat or cool my house. When somebody ask what size unit would I need to cool my 3000 sq ft house. You just give a rough ideal and tell them they need to pay for a Manual J to be done on there house. That's why it is just loose talk.

I use Elite only because that is what the suppler wants. As for mine geo since 2000, Heating and Cooling since 85, PA Contractor Licenses since 2009. I was not dodging any questions.


Figure of speech (loose Talk) 5912 sq ft house would roughly be 14.78 ton's.
Elite Manual J done on 5912 sq. ft 114,587 btu's will be 12 ton's.

Comfort Tech

CT, I know what a rule of thumb is. I just can't hang with yours. I don't know where to begin, but my Earthlinked training said no more than 1 ton over cooling load. Your suggestion of 12 tons for 114.5MBH (in PA) defies that training and most geo designs.
One of my biggest complaints about any DX system is that they seem to attract newbies. You appear to be one of them and a poor champion of Earthlinked.
I strongly suggest you share your above quote with your rep and ask for more design training.
Good Luck,
J

Comfort Tech,

It is obvious to the pros on this board that you are inexperienced and untrained in geo systems. Please don't try and fool your way around here.

I must applaud you both geodean and joe ami, You have just spoken what I was thinking

We use Wrightsoft for the load calculation, and Elite Audit for the comparison. Both use ACCA manual J, and both are competent. What must be done with any geo system, EarthLinked or not, is an accurate Manual J calculation.

Followed by intelligent sizing and design ;)
j

But unintelligent sizing and design is so much faster!