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We often get customers asking what the price is to install Air Conditioning in their home.  To be able to answer that, we need to ask you a few questions first.

1.  What is the purpose of the air conditioning?  There are three routes you can take with your cooling.

• Cooling for your entire home.  If you want to have cooling throughout your entire home, a traditional air conditioner could be a good option for you.
• Cooling for your entire home, plus heating in the winter with significant energy savings.  Many customers choose to upgrade to a heat pump, since it not only provides cooling during the summer but also heating in the winter along with significant energy savings.
• Cooling for a room or two.  Regardless of whether or not you already have air conditioning, chances are that you have a few rooms that get warmer than you would like during the summer months.  A great way to fix that is to provide room spot cooling through ductless mini-split systems.  They will cool down the spaces that need it with much more energy savings than a traditional air conditioner.

2.  What is the size of your home?  A larger home means that a larger air conditioner is necessary, which marginally increases the cost.

3.  What is the Heat Gain within your home?  Heat gain is how much heat your house holds in as the day gets warmer.  Insulation, windows, and age of the home contribute to the calculation.  For example, a poorly insulated home with a southern bank of windows would gain more heat throughout the day than a well insulated home with a bank of northern windows.  The more heat your house gains, the larger the air conditioning unit that is needed to be able to counteract that heat.

4.  What is the condition of your duct work?  You should always get your ducts sealed and insulated if you have leaks or cracks in them.  If you don’t, your cooled air is released into your crawl space or attic instead of your home, wasting energy and causing the air conditioner to run longer.  Some companies compensate by giving you a larger unit, but our company will seal and insulate the duct work for you.

5.  What efficiency are you looking for?  Just like you can get cars with great gas mileage or poor gas mileage, the same thing goes for air conditioners.  Air Conditioners have various SEER ratings, anywhere from 13 to 23, with 13 being the lowest energy efficiency and 23 being the highest energy efficiency.  With a 23 SEER Air Conditioner, you’re going to have lower utility bills, which will save you money over time, but you also have a higher cost up front for the unit itself.

After taking all of those factors into account, a new Air Conditioning system will cost anywhere from $3,500 to $10,000, depending on what type of system you ultimately choose to get.  A visit with a Comfort Advisor will help you determine what is best for your needs and what will fit within your budget.

SEER- Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating.  This is applied to any unit that has cooling.  All Heat Pumps and Air Conditioners have a SEER number, and the higher the number, the more efficient the unit.

HSPF- Heating Seasonal Performance Factor.  All Heat Pumps have this rating, and again, the higher the number, the more efficient the unit.

AFUE- Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency.  Gas Furnaces carry this rating and just like the rest of them, the higher the number, the more efficient the unit.

If you’re curious about what ratings your heating or cooling units carry, give us a call at 253-630-9224 and we can give you that info.