What is the purpose of the air conditioning?
There are several routes you can take with
your cooling
If you want to have cooling throughout
your entire home, a traditional air conditioner could be a good option for you. Cooling for your entire home plus heating in
the winter with significant energy savings, many customers choose to upgrade to
a heat pump. Since it only provides cooling during the summer and also only
heating in the winter along with significant energy savings.
Regardless or not you already
have air conditioning, chances are that you have a few rooms that get warmer than
you would like during the summer months. A great way to fix that is to provide
room spot cooling through ductless mini-split systems; they will cool down the
spaces that need it with much more energy savings than a traditional air
conditioner.
A larger home means that a larger
air conditioner is necessary, which marginally increases the cost.
What
is the heat gain within your home?
Heat gain is how much heat your house holds in
as the day gets warmer. Insulation, windows, and age of the home contribute to
the calculation.
For example, a poorly insulated
home with a southern bank of windows would gain more heat throughout the day
than a well-insulated home with a bank of northern windows. The more heat your
house gains, the larger the air conditioning unit that is needed to be able to
counteract that heat.
What is the condition of your duct work?
You should always get your ducts
sealed and insulated if you have leaks or cracks in them. If you don't, your
cooled air is released into your crawl space or attic instead of your home wasting
energy and causing the air conditioner to run longer. Some companies compensate
by giving you a larger unit. Our company will seal and insulate the ductwork
for you.
What
efficiency are you looking for?
Just like you can get cars with great gas
mileage or poor gas mileage the same thing goes for air conditioners. Air
conditioners have various seer ratings, anywhere from 12 to 23, with 13 being
the lowest energy efficiency. With a 23
seer air conditioner you're going to have lower utility bills, which will save
you money over time, but you also have a higher cost up front for the unit
itself.
After taking all of those factors
into account, a new air conditioning system will cost anywhere from $3,500 to
$10/000 depending on what type of system you ultimately chooses to get. A visit
with a comfort adviser will help you determine. What is best for your needs and
what will fit within you budget.
