Even though the summers in North Carolina typically aren’t brutally hot like they are in other places, it’s often still hot enough that air conditioning is necessary. If your home doesn’t have central air conditioning, window AC units can be a decent option for helping you stay cool. Nonetheless, central AC has several advantages. In this article, we’ll look at what these advantages are to show you why installing a central AC system can be such a good investment.
Efficiency and Energy Consumption
Central air conditioning systems are energy intensive and can cost quite a bit to run. Nonetheless, central ACC systems are also quite a bit more energy efficient than window AC units. If you wanted to effectively cool your entire house with window ACs, you’d really need to have one in almost every room. For areas like your bedrooms that often aren’t occupied during the day, you could leave the units in those rooms off until a bit before you’re ready to go to bed to save energy. However, you’d also want to make sure that the bedroom doors are closed so that you don’t end up heating up the rest of your house.
Even if you don’t have all of your window AC units running all of the time, running more than a few of them will typically use more energy than cooling your home with central air conditioning. If you have a 1,500-square-foot house, you’d typically need a 2.5-ton central AC system. A basic system this size typically consumes about 2.5 kilowatts (kW) of electricity per hour of running time, while a higher-efficiency system would obviously use less electricity. A small window AC unit typically uses around 500 watts (0.5 kW) per hour, while large window units can use around 1.5 kW. That means even just running two window units at the same time would cost more than running a central AC system.
Installing a central AC system usually costs anywhere from $3,500 to $8,500 depending on the size of the system and how efficient it is, which is almost always going to be more than what you’d pay to purchase multiple window units. Nonetheless, installing a central AC system is also almost always going to be more cost effective in the long term since it will use less energy and cool your home for less money.
Cooling Effectiveness
Central air conditioning will always cool your home more effectively since it draws warm air in from the central parts of the house and then circulates the cooled air into every room. That means you’ll end up with a fairly even temperature throughout every part of your house with few, if any, hot spots.
Window AC units work fairly well at quickly cooling the space they’re in, but they can’t circulate enough air to cool other places. With window units, you typically won’t be able to effectively cool certain parts of your house like hallways or bathrooms. You also need to have the right type of window in each room to accommodate the unit. This can be an issue since not every house has vertical or horizontal sliding windows in rooms like the kitchen, dining room and living room or sometimes not even in the bedrooms.
Why Ductless AC Is Also a Good Alternative to Window Units
The only problem with central air conditioning is that not all homes have existing air ducts. Trying to retrofit ducts into a home is extremely difficult and requires extensive renovations. In many cases, it simply isn’t possible because there isn’t enough available space to run all of the ducts. If your home doesn’t have air ducts, installing a ductless mini-split AC system is also typically a better option than using window units.
A ductless mini-split system is sort of like a combination between a central air conditioner and window units. That’s because you have a standard AC condenser unit outside the house, which is connected to indoor units located in your various rooms. One advantage of ductless air conditioning is that it allows you to control and adjust the temperature in each room that has an air handler unit. That means you don’t need to waste energy by cooling bedrooms or other areas that aren’t occupied during the day. Ductless AC systems are also extremely efficient and typically use even less energy than central air conditioning. As long as you’re strategic and think carefully about the location of each indoor air handler within your house, a ductless system can cool your home just as effectively as central air conditioning and far more effectively than window units.
Since 2006, Putnam Mechanical has been helping residents in Mooresville and the Greater Charlotte area with all of their air conditioning, heating and electrical needs. We specialize in HVAC installation and can assist you with choosing the right AC system for your home, and we can also take care of your maintenance and repair needs. To schedule an AC consultation or a service call, contact us today.
