Things You Will Need
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Determine the dimensions of each room in the restaurant with a measuring tape, including the dining room, waiting area, bathrooms, bar, basement and any storage room. Kitchens are often not air conditioned, so don’t bother measuring it. Use a ladder when measuring the height of each room.
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Multiply the width by the length of each room to determine its square footage. If a room is 15 feet wide and 20 feet long, it is 300 square feet in size.
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Add together the total square footage of each room. If you have a 300-square-foot room, a 700-square-foot room, a 250-square-foot room, and a 500-square-foot room, the total square footage is 1,750 square feet.
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Review an air conditioning square footage range chart (like the one found at http://www.acdirect.com/systemsize.php) and determine the tonnage, or cooling capacity, of an air conditioner for the climate in which you live. The rule of thumb is: the farther north you live, the larger the cooling capacity of the air conditioner will be.
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Determine the tonnage of air conditioning you need by comparing the square footage of the rooms in the restaurant with the square footage cooling capacity of an air conditioner (on the square footage range chart). For instance, if your restaurant is located in Northern Ohio (Zone 4) and the total square footage is 1,750 square feet, a three-ton air conditioner would suffice.