3 Simple Air Conditioner Options for Cooling a New Home Addition
Although the Wilmington area’s summers aren’t extreme, they’re too hot to consider leaving any part of your home without cooling. For cooling a new home addition, you have several practical options.
Extend Your Ductwork and Use Your Current System
If your addition is small and your air conditioner is less than 10 years old, you may be able to have ducts installed to connect the new room to your existing system. Including a duct damper and separate thermostat will give you more control over your addition’s temperatures. Extending the ducts isn’t always possible, though. Your A/C was sized to meet the cooling demands of the house when the system was installed and may not be able to handle the added load of cooling a new home addition.
Invest in an Upgrade
An air conditioner that’s 10 or more years old is approaching the end of its life and is much less energy efficient than newer systems. By upgrading to a new A/C, you can have the system sized to meet the increased demands of your recently enlarged house and enjoy lower cooling bills thanks to a more efficient air conditioner.
Install a Ductless System
If your air conditioner is relatively new but extending the ducts isn’t an option, a ductless cooling system provides a convenient alternative for cooling a new home addition. A ductless system, also known as a ductless heat pump, consists of an outdoor unit and an indoor air handler mounted on the wall, ceiling or floor. The two units are connected by a conduit line that requires only a 3-inch hole in the wall.
Because a ductless system runs independently from the central air conditioner, it can be sized precisely to meet your addition’s cooling needs and will let you control the temperatures in the addition separately from the rest of the house.
At Sobieski Services, Inc., our goal is to help our customers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey learn more about energy and home comfort issues – especially HVAC and plumbing issues – so they can save money and live in healthier, more comfortable homes.
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