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Options For Air Conditioners
By admin | March 1, 2010
A cool house is a popular thing for people to look forward to on hot, humid summer days. As beautiful as summer is, the heat quickly wears you down and one of the best ways to cool down and relax from the impact of the sun is to walk into a home that is being cooled down with a functioning air conditioning system. Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury of central air conditioning for their home, apartment, or office. The good news is that there is more than one option when it comes to cooling down the inside of your home.
There are many air conditioning options to choose from that are cost effective and energy efficient. You can choose between all kinds of window air conditioners, portable air conditioners, and portable evaporative coolers to make the summer heat endurable. The hard part isn’t finding a cooling system that you can afford, but rather deciding which cooling system will work best for you. Below we have mentioned some of the important air cooler descriptions for you to consider when determining which type will best suit your needs.
Aside from central cooling, window air conditioners are very common. Homeowners enjoy them because they are affordable and they are powerful enough to cool down a single room or studio. This works out great of you live alone and spend most of your time in a single room such as your bedroom, office, basement, etc. They work best if you have a vertically opening window. Also, they are convenient in that that they do not require any additional ventilation and they save valuable floor space. Furthermore, window air conditioners require very little maintenance and can be programmed to turn on and off whenever you specify.
Portable air conditioners are loved because they can be moved around from one room to the next. People often end up using portable Air Conditioners as oscillating fans, odor removers or dehumidifiers. Most of them have built in condensation tanks which need to be emptied periodically. These tanks automatically turn off when they become full which keeps water from spilling onto the floor. Other portable systems include a self-evaporation features which automatically ventilates excess moisture out of the room. However, keep in mind that portable air conditioners do require a window ventilation hose to function correctly.
Evaporative coolers, also knows as swamp coolers, work differently then air conditioners. They do not use any type of refrigeration to cool the air. They do, however, use the natural cooling process of evaporating water to cool the air which then gets blown into the room. The pros to evaporative coolers are that they are less expensive than air conditioners and they use much less electricity to cool a room. Furthermore, evaporative coolers are low maintenance and inexpensive to repair in most cases. Keep in mind; these coolers are only effective in hot, humid temperatures.
Liz Wood
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/options-for-air-conditioners-85817.html
Topics: Trane AC | 6 Comments »
March 1st, 2010 at 7:09 am
air conditioner options for two storey house?
hot summer in TX means that upstairs stays hot. Considering window unit to put in upstairs window, but apart from that, is there an option to retrofit our non-zoned central A/C so that it will keep the upstairs colder? If so, how much cost aprox? any other ideas? thanks!
March 1st, 2010 at 12:11 pm
You might look into the dampers in your existing unit. These are like "wind deflects" that force air down ducts in the central air flow line in your HVAC. This will force more air to certain vents. If you forced more air upstairs, you will affective be cooling upstairs more than the downstairs. This will probably be fairly costly however.
I’d suggest a second unit, dedicated to the upstairs.
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March 1st, 2010 at 12:13 pm
is your return duct high upstairs or is there none.a fan will help circulate the air to
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March 1st, 2010 at 12:15 pm
first of all this is a pretty common problem with a 2 story house unfortunately the only thing you can really do is damper off some of the 1st floor registers to allow more airflow upstairs. adding a attic fan if you don’t have one will help too. and if that doesn’t help much then a window unit would be the best solution.
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facility engineer 25 yrs.
March 1st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
There are lots of ways to approach cooling the upstairs.
From sending it more air from downstairs to adding a unit upstairs.
What we have begun using- and it works great!- are what is called MINI SPLITS.
They are ductless units that are dead silent to run, SUPER efficient 14-19 SEER, easy to install, and require NO DUCT work.
Check out http://mrslim.com
I have a one story 5000SF home that I always ran the two units in the house ALL DAY to keep my bedroom cool at night (South MS)
The problem was- WHY cool the whole dang house off when I just needed my master suite area cooler at night. I was freesing my KIds out to keep me just cool enough. Not to mention my $600/month electric.
I installed a mini split and now can take my suite area down to 60 degrees! with it 105 outside. No I don;t recommend 60 degrees but my wife and I had to try it one night. It was hotel room cold.
Now we keep it at 70 and the rest of the house at 78. My electric bill dropped by 200 dollars and the area is as cool as I want it.
Good luck.
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March 1st, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Short of installing another complete system to cool the second floor, your window-unit idea would probably be the most economical from an initial outlay/operating expense standpoint. Poor conditioning of second floors can be attributed to the shortcomings of residential architects and home builders. One fails to design well and the other buys a cheap system to increase his profits. Good luck.
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