5 Things You Need To Consider When Buying A New Air Conditioner
There are many different types of air conditioner brands. There are high-end brands and low-end brands. There are superior ones that will last a long time and others that … well, let’s face it, they are just meant to be cheap.
Brand
We have chosen to partner with Lennox. We have partnered exclusively with Lennox because they support their dealers with local parts distribution. Most other brands, in fact, all of them except for one, have pulled their parts distribution from Ottawa.
This means that when your air conditioner is 7 to 10 years old and needs routine servicing, you likely will not have parts available locally to fix it. If the unit fails on a 38ﾟ day, you will likely be out of luck for a few days while the necessary part is ordered and delivered from Toronto or Montreal.
Size
Often there is more than one correctly-sized air conditioner for a home. The only way to know what size is a proper fit is to perform a heat gain calculation on your home. This is a standard service we provide for all our home consultations.
Efficiency
The SEER rating is one of the most important factors when choosing an air conditioner. The SEER rating refers to the electricity consumption of your unit. The higher the SEER rating, the less electricity your unit will use. The SEER scale is also linear. For example, an air conditioner with a 26 SEER rating will use exactly half of the electricity of one with a rating of 13C.
Noise
How long will you be able to stand listening to a loud, obnoxious air conditioner? There is a reason some units are cheaper: what you gain in cost, you lose in quality. And since the unit sits outside, the noise also affects your neighbours. Typically, more efficient units are also quieter.
Operating Stages
This may be the most important consideration for your new AC unit, because it’s more than just a cooling system, it’s also a dehumidification system. To be comfortable, we must cool our house and be able to dehumidify. When buying an air conditioner, the three choices are single-stage, two-stage or modulating (or multi-stage).
An air conditioner has to be running to dehumidify. A single-stage air conditioner is either on or off with nothing in between. It will do all the cooling you need but will only be effective at removing humidity on those extremely hot summer days, simply because it takes a long time to cool, given the warm temperature outside.
On a moderately hot day when it’s not hot outside but with a lot of humidity, a single-stage air conditioner will run long enough to cool the house but not long enough to remove the humidity, leaving you uncomfortable. By contrast, a two-stage air conditioner has an additional setting that allows it to run at half speed.
At that half speed, the unit runs longer, thereby cooling the house and removing the humidity together. Lastly, your modulating air conditioner can deliver precise temperature and humidity every day of the cooling season.
Whether it is extremely hot, moderately hot or not, your modulating system will maintain whatever temperature you desire and revert to a low setting to act as a whole-house dehumidification system. With a modulating air conditioner, you will never have to compromise between temperature and humidity.
Get in touch using the form above or below! Let us help you choose the right air conditioner for your home and your needs.
