Invest In High-Efficiency Air Conditioning This Summer, And Enjoy The Benefits For Seasons To Come

Choosing an air conditioning system for your home or business is actually a rather big decision. Big, because an air conditioner is something that will be around for years and years to come. Daily, it will be driving not only your comfort level, but also your electric bills. So when considering which air conditioning system to buy, it is important to come at it from a long-term viewpoint.

As you may have noticed, there can be some significant differences in the price tags of different A/C units — even units of the same size and same brand. Those price differences are due to differences in quality, and in how technologically advanced the A/C unit is. You see, over the past several years, some big advancements have been made in the air conditioning industry, particularly when it comes to energy efficiency. You can still get standard models that use the older technology — and many people do, especially when they are just looking at the short-term price of the system.

Over the entire life of an air conditioning system, though, the biggest single cost is often not the system itself, but rather the cost of the electricity used to run the system year after year. By choosing the slightly cheaper model now, those homeowners and business owners are often unknowingly paying more for their air conditioning overall.

So if you really want to save, you need to compare the long-term costs and benefits. You can do this by looking at the SEER of each air conditioner. SEER is the ratio of cooling output compared to the amount of electricity consumed. Double the SEER number, and you cut the air conditioner’s electricity consumption in half.

You can get an idea of how much the SEER rating impacts the long-term costs of a system by utilizing Energy Star’s Life Cycle Cost Estimate worksheet, downloadable for free here. However, for an accurate estimate taking into account the specifics of your Los Angeles-area home or business, contact the experts at Air-Tro.

If you have any other questions about ways to save energy and keep your home comfortable, give us a call.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information, click here to download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Air-Tro Inc. services the greater Los Angeles area as well as the metro areas of Riverside and San Bernardino County. To get started, check out our website.