![]() You can, however, hide the condenser in the landscaping, as long as air can freely circulate around it. Any airflow restriction will lower the unit’s efficiency. Don’t place the condenser under a deck or completely enclose it because it exhausts warm air out the top. Proper placementĮven the quietest condensers make noise, so work with your contractor to find a location that’s not near a bedroom or home-office window. The 20- to 30-foot-long pipes that carry the refrigerant are disguised to look like a downspout. If you don’t have forced air, the fan-and-coil system is typically placed in the attic, where it will deliver cool air through ducts. If that won’t work because of space limitations, the contractor will fabricate a separate sheet-metal plenum. Sometimes it goes right into the existing plenum. If you have a forced-air furnace, the refrigerant pipes are connected to a cooling coil system fitted into the furnace air handler. ![]() With a “split system,” the condenser is outside the house and the fan-and-coil system are inside they’re connected to each other by pipes that carry refrigerant. This is essentially a large wall air conditioner with ducts. The ducting connects directly to the unit. ![]() A “package system” gangs the condenser, which cools the refrigerant and exhausts warm air, with the fan-and-coil system, which cools and blows the air. Next, you must decide what type of system to buy. In general, the higher the SEER, the higher the initial cost for the unit. These units have lower operating costs, tend to be higher quality, have more safety features, better sound shields and lower voltage requirements. The higher the SEER, the less it costs to operate.įederal law requires that new A/C units have a SEER of at least 13. ![]() The SEER rates how many Btu an air conditioner will remove for each watt of electricity it consumes. Unit efficiencyĪfter determining the size of the unit, your contractor should talk to you about efficiency, which is expressed by the seasonal energy-efficiency rating (SEER). In fact, the room can feel clammy and damp. The result is a room that doesn’t seem as cool as the temperature indicates. That’s because it cools the air so quickly that it shuts off before it has a chance to circulate the proper volume of air past the coils to extract the necessary moisture. And an oversize unit doesn’t lower humidity effectively. An oversize compressor also costs more to operate because it simply takes more electricity to run a bigger unit. Why is getting the proper size unit so important?Īn undersize unit won’t be able to cool rooms down completely on the hottest days and will cost more to operate because it has to run longer than a correctly sized unit. Using the heat-gain calculation, your contractor will recommend an air conditioner size, expressed either in tonnage or Btu per hour (Btu/h). Take these steps when determining how big of a central air unit is needed for your home’s size. By making your home more energy efficient, you may be able to reduce the size of the air conditioner you need. The calculation can also alert you to the possible benefits of upgrading the insulation in your house. Though strongly influenced by where you live, several factors affect the size unit required, including the amount of wall and attic insulation you have the types and placement of windows and doors and the orientation of your home to the sun. Move on to another contractor if the one you’re considering wants to determine the right unit for your house solely on experience. The calculation is relatively easy to perform and will reveal what size unit you need. This determines the heat gain your home is subject to. Heat-gain calculationĪll cooling contractors should start their evaluation of your house by performing an Air Conditioning Contractors of America Manual J load calculation. The first order of business - and maybe the most important decision in having central air conditioner installed in your home - is selecting the right equipment. But a contractor experienced in retrofitting can cleverly hide ductwork behind walls, in the back of closets and up in the attic with minimal cuts into walls and the ceiling and very little mess. Related The Basics of Home Air Conditioning Systemsįor a house that needs ducts, the costs and work time double.
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