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Central AirThis page will attempt to give you general knowledge about central air conditioning systems. It is intended to give you just enough information to make you dangerous. Just kidding. With this page and the links provided here, It should give you enough information to make you an educated buyer. You will then have to do your own research on the reliability and quality of the brand name you are thinking about purchasing.
What is it?
Central air conditioning is a system that uses the same duct work as your furnace to distribute cold air throughout the entire house. If you have baseboard heat, hot water heat, or radiant heat, then you can not get central air without running some duct work. It can be done, but it is expensive.
Terminology.
BTU’s(British thermal units): In my opinion, knowing exactly what a BTU is, is just a waste of brain space, pushing out some information you may need down the road. What you need to know is the more BTU’s your central air unit has, the more cooling capacity your unit has. Used in a sentence: “this baby right here will put out about 30,000 BTU’s!” If your dying to understand everything about BTU’s then you can start with this definition by
Wikipedia.
SEER: seasonal energy efficiency ratio: Like BTU’s, understanding how the SEER rating works is most likely useless information. What is useful is to understand that the higher the SEER number is, the more efficient the unit is, and the less money you spend to cool your home. The minimum SEER allowed today is 13. Get a higher number if you can afford it. It will most likely pay for itself over time. For more on SEER ratings and a lot of other central air information, check out this link. How to choose the right unit for your home. There are many ways contractors use to gauge the size of unit you need. According to several experts, most of these size estimatating rules of thumb are wrong. This could result in purchasing a unit that is too small or too big. If the unit is too small, it won’t cool very well and will run too much. If the unit is too big, it too will run inefficiently, cost more to install, and will not run long enough to get the humidity out of the air. Read this article by Bob Vila to get a better idea of what your contractor should do to get a proper size estimate for you. Check out this free estimator to double check the size unit you contractor recommends.
Summary:
Remember, as with everything, you get what you pay for. Make sure you check out the warranties and quality of the product you choose. Make sure you hire a competent contractor. Check out the Good luck and stay cool! contractor interview page on this site to get an idea of the questions you should ask your contractor. Remember that The more BTU’s or Tons a unit has the more cooling capacity it has. Also remember that a unit that is too large is just as bad as a unit that is too small. So get the proper size. And lastly, remember that the higher the SEER rating is, the more efficient it is. As always, if I did not answer a question that you have, please feel free to
contact me.
Leave central air page and return to construction materials page.
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