Looking For A New Air Conditioner? Check Out High Efficiency Models
An air conditioner is a fairly long-term investment that you’ll use daily during the summers for many years to come. So, when choosing a new air conditioner, consider the total lifetime benefits and costs. Just because a certain model may be cheaper to install today does not mean it will save you money over time. Often the opposite is the case, especially if you consider the long-term savings provided by high-efficiency air conditioners.
All new air conditioners today are more energy-efficient than the average system was 10 or 20 years ago, thanks to new technologies and government energy standards. When we talk about “high-efficiency air conditioners,” we are really referring to models that are highly efficient even compared to other new options.
Air conditioning efficiency is measured by something called SEER, or Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio; the higher the SEER number, the more efficient the air conditioner. Your basic new air conditioner will have a SEER rating of about 13, but some high-efficiency air conditioners rate as high as 21 on the SEER scale. That equates to a 38 percent reduction in your cooling bill, each and every month.
High-efficiency air conditioners do tend to have a higher initial price than less-efficient models, but the long-term benefits often outweigh that. You can get a rough idea of the overall savings for a Delaware Valley home by utilizing Energy Star’s cost calculator worksheet (which you can download for free here). But there can also be short-term savings, in the form of federal tax credits and other rebates designed to lower the cost of making energy-efficient upgrades to your home.
To find out what savings may be available to you, and to see if high efficiency air conditioning would be the right choice for your home, contact us at Sobieski Services today. We would be happy to answer your questions.
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.
Sobieski serves Wilmington, Delaware and the surrounding areas. To get started, check out our website.