When it comes to having a central air conditioner installed this time of the year, homeowners are often in a rush to make a purchase and get it put in so they can start enjoying a cooler indoor environment.
Unfortunately, rushing into a purchase like this could leave you with a system that is improperly matched for your home, and therefore works very inefficiently and may even have a shortened lifespan.
What do we mean by this? Well just like you should make sure you have the right air conditioner for your home (i.e. central air conditioner, heat pump, or ductless cooling system) you want to make sure it’s the right size. Wondering why? Read on!
What’s Wrong with an Undersized Air Conditioner
As you can probably conclude on your own, an undersized (or in other words, underpowered) air conditioner simply can’t do its job to the best of its ability. It cannot keep up with your home’s cooling demands, which in turn forces it to run longer, and essentially work harder, than it should have to in order to do its job.
As a result, you’ll see a rise in energy costs and a decrease in your household comfort. During one of the hottest days of summer, it’s certainly easy to see why this is a problem. It’s best to ensure that you have a properly sized air conditioner installed right from the start.
What’s Wrong with an Oversized Air Conditioner
This is a problem that is a little less commonly known among homeowners. While you might think “the bigger, the better,” this isn’t the case for air conditioners. In fact, if an air conditioner is too large for the space that it’s installed in, it will behave very inefficiently. This is because the optimal AC efficiency happens through continued operation and regular cooling cycles.
When an air conditioner is too big for the space, your desired temperatures on the thermostat will be reached too quickly, before your system has the chance to complete a full cooling cycle. This problem is known as short-cycling, and it’s something you don’t want to have to deal with.
Not only is this really inefficient, but it exacerbates wear and tear on your air conditioner. Plus, the only way to “fix” the problem, is to replace the system with a properly sized air conditioner. So as you can guess, it’s best to start with a properly sized one to start with, which we can help you with!
Helping You with the Right Sized Air Conditioner
When you decide to have a new air conditioner installed and you call our team, the very first thing will do is go through a process called a cooling load calculation, and we’ll look at a variety of factors. Yes, the square footage of your home is important here, but we also look at things like how high the ceilings are, what type of insulation and building materials you home has, and even how many windows or doors are in the space.
This all helps us make an educated recommendation to bring you the best air conditioning for your specific home.
Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning is your trusted resource for quality AC installation in Chicago, IL. Contact us today!