Which is more cost efficient (energy and cost wise)?
Question:Which is more cost efficient (energy and cost wise) to use, a central air conditioning system or the individual wall/window units? Including initial installation and maintenance costs. Thank you.
Answers:
My electric utility provider is running advertisements right now saying that it is cheaper to use individual window units than central air. Their website shows the cost savings per kilowatt hour to be substantial, too. Most of the time, you can install the window units yourself, but for central air you need an HVAC specialist or electrician. Depending on the size unit the square footage of your home requires, central air can run $3,000-5,000. Maintenance on central air and window units is really negligible. You have filters to clean or replace for both and our utility does free inspections for both the heater and AC units yearly. In 9 years, neither required maintenance. I think one of the reasons it is cheaper to operate the window units is that you are only cooling rooms that you are in whereas the central air cools the entire square footage of the house requiring a much bigger fan to do so.
I prefer individual wall/window units. We have full control on cooling. We do not need to cool multiple rooms as Central AC does. With central AC we can have controls for each room, but it is very expensive. I'm not sure whether it is cost effective.
Windows units.
One, you can only cool the area you are currently using. And, two, when one kicks the bucket, it is less expensive to replace, and in the meantime you can move to another room, or remove a unit from another room and keep cool. Sure beats having the whole house without ac.
The only con is they are ugly and block your view/light unless you put them in the wall. Oh, and they can be loud, especially when the compressor kicks on.
Eventually the Central Air will be more efficient.
Consider how long your going to live there, how big the space is, how cool you want it VS how hot it is outside, how many people are living there ( more people = more heat ), how efficient the wall/window unit is, etc.
If your leaning for the wall/window unit make sure it's labled with "Energy Star".
defintitely central. The hook-ups will cost more, but over time you will be happy
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