What makes central air conditioning units different than other air conditioning units on the market? Great question! While we are at it lets talk about the leading models and manufactures of central air conditioning units and what to look for when you go shopping.
A central air conditioning unit is most often called central air in the united states and Air-con in the United Kingdom. What makes these units different than say window air conditioners is that a central air conditioning unit has a system of ducts that go through your house. These ducts distribute the cooled air to all of the rooms of your house. So one system covers the whole house. With all the other individual units or portable air conditioners, you have to have one in each room or if you do use it for the whole house you don’t get that much cooling.
Other central air systems use chilled water going through heat exchanger through the house to cool things down. In most central air conditioning units the condensor and compressor parts of the unit are kept outside and therefore fairly quiet. Some systems come as a complete package and can be mounted outside on the ground or even on the roof.
Lets talk about some of the advantages of central air conditioning units have over other self contained systems. One major one is that the air in the house is pulled into the air handling unit from around the house. When it does this, the air is pulled through a filter system. Because of this, particles in the air and things like lint, dust, cat dander and others are removed. The more expensive you go with your filter the more types of contaminants you can remove from the air and increase the air quality of your house.
That’s a big one in my opinion. Then once the air is clean, it gets pumped back out to the different rooms of your house. Always cleaning and then sending it back out. Great for those with allergies or pets.
The second biggest benefit I eluded to already and that is the decrease in noise that you get with central air conditioning units because the major working bits are located outside instead of in the window beside your bed!
Now that we got that covered, how do you pick one out?
Just like everything on the market, central air conditioning units have low, medium and high end pricing and it is usually based on the SEER. We talked about the SEER in the central air conditioner prices article and about how it may not be the gauge of what you really want in a unit.
At any rate, the most expensive part of the central system is the compressor. The quality and power of the compressor dictates the pressure that is put on the cooling fluid (either freon or puron) and thus the ability to remove the heat from the air. Besides cooling better, some higher end models use scroll compressors that more reliable and more quiet than the traditional compressors usually found in central air conditioning units.
Personally I understand wanting to increase the cooling capability of the unit but since the noise is usually located outside I don’t really see that as much of a buying incentive as it would be on a unit located in your window lets say.
I bet you thought the only thing you would pick the paint on was your house and your car but you can also get special protective paints and panels on the outside working parts to protect them from the environment.
What About Price Ranges On Central Air Conditioning Units?
At the low end you can look at spending around $3000 and up. The unit will not be as energy efficient as the more expensive ones but are still much better than the “good” units of several years ago. According to some accounts, a low end modern unit could cut your electric bill by as much as half compared to an old unit.
If you are looking for the best value for your money a central air conditioning unit with a SEER of 13 would be a great choice. While the mid range units will have SEERs of 14.5 to 17 you will pay extra unless you can get a government rebate and in that case it will work out to about the same price.
So why would you get a higher end central air conditioning unit? Bonus features. Just like with a car. With the higher end units you can get two stage cooling, a bit quieter performance and higher SEER in the 17-23 range. You’ll also just be coming in at the bottom end in the $4000 range at the time of this writing. The thing with the higher SEER is that in the long term you will be saving money on the electricity bill especially if power is pricey in your area.
For the green friendly crew out there, here is an important point to note. The higher end central air conditioning units come with a newer refrigerant called R-410A. This coolant is reported to not be damaging to the ozone like the older coolant Freon which has been used extensively in the past.