On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:11:54 -0500, someone wrote:


The customer gets a complete print-out of the Manual J and Manual D
calculations that tell exactly what is required. Unless you do the math and
run the calculations, your doing nothing but guessing.
Do *you* want to base that kind of investment and cash outlay on a guess??

What I'm getting at is, how does one "cut corners on the formulas"
when the contractor is using a commercial spreadsheet package where he
puts in the parameters and the "formulas" are built in. I used to do
these calcs "by hand". I doubt most contractors could, they just use
their computer package and the answer is whatever it says. So what
that they give a copy of the printout to the homeowner. Don't confuse
accuracy with precision.

If a window is 4'-8" by 3'-4" but the contractor figured it as 3 x 5
feet, is it going to matter that he took a shortcut with the formula?

So you get an "exact" calc, but the units are not made in that "exact"
size. Then you ask the contractor to use his experience, judgment and
understanding of principles to tell you that you are better off with
the one that is a little undersized even though the one that is a very
little bit oversized is closer to the "exact" figure.

I'm not impressed with people who toss around an "exact" figure that
just came out of a computer as if that means the person holding it
knows something.



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