“Air-conditionable area” Is a Better Way to Decide If a House Is Big Enough

I’m house-hunting. In order to decide whether an apartment big enough, I need to know its area in square feet. There are multiple ways to measure this, such as carpetable area, built-up area and super built-up area¹.

In this blog post, I’ll define a new measurement, the air-conditionable area², which I find more useful to see if it’s big enough for me:

The Air-conditionable area is also designed to make it easier to measure, by reducing the number of areas that need to be measured. Now that the corridor (for example) is excluded, I don’t need to measure it³.

Fungibility

Some parts of a home are fungible. This means that if one room is cramped, it can be compensated elsewhere.

✅ If one room is cramped, I’ll use it as a store room and put all cupboards there or use it as a guest bedroom. Instead of treating it as a negative, I’ll be mentally flexible and treat it as a benefit — to declutter the rest of the home.

✅ I’ll put the fridge in the kitchen or dining area, wherever there’s room.

✅ If a room doesn’t have enough storage to store whatever logically belongs there, but the adjacent room has lots, I’ll put it there.

✅ Kitchen utensils and pressure cookers ideally belong in the kitchen, but if there isn’t enough space, I can put them in a cupboard in another room⁴.

✅ While I prefer to put the washing machine in the utility area (to reduce noise), if there isn’t space, I’ll put it in the kitchen⁵.

When calculating the total area of a house, you should add up the things that are fungible, and evaluate whether that’s sufficient. Whatever is not fungible you should evaluate individually. My definition of air-conditionable space is in line with this logic, counting fungible areas.

In summary, the air-conditionable area gives me a better of idea of whether a house is big enough for me than the RERA carpetable area, and is easy to measure.

1. If you’re using these terms, make sure they’re defined as per RERA. In other words, “RERA carpet area” is well-defined, but “carpet area” is measured differently by different builders.

2. Regardless of whether you air-condition some or all of it.

3. A good measurement helps you make better decisions (whether to rent a given apartment) but is also easy to calculate in the real world.

4. The key is to put them in all in one room, rather than scattered throughout the home.

5. Which has other benefits: it will last long without exposure to the sun and the rain, and I can avoid buying a cover.