Summertime is often a time of high electricity bills for homeowners in the Hampton Roads area. There are multiple things you can do to save electricity during the summer without having to give up on comfort, but the single biggest way to save on your summer electric bills is to invest in a high-efficiency air conditioning system. A high-efficiency system can drastically cut your cooling bill, especially if you are replacing a system that is more than a decade old. But how can you tell whether the air conditioner you are looking at is efficient or not?
The quickest and easiest way to choose a high-efficiency air conditioner is to look for the Energy Star label. Products earn the Energy Star label by meeting certain efficiency requirements. For air conditioners, the minimum Energy Star requirements represent a 10-15 percent energy savings compared to a standard air conditioner.
The Energy Star label is only part of the story, though. It ensures that the system meets the minimum efficiency requirements, but does not tell you whether it exceeds those requirements, or by how much it exceeds them. For that, you'll need to look at the unit's SEER rating. SEER, or Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, is a measure of how good an air conditioner is at converting electric energy into cooling energy. It is a practical measure, because it gives you the average efficiency for the system over an entire year, in all types of weather.
Though your old air conditioner might have a SEER rating of about 10, all units built since 2006 are required to rate at least 13. Depending on the type of air conditioner, an Energy Star unit will have a minimum SEER of 14 or 14.5. Some high-end air conditioners, though, can have SEER ratings in the upper teens or twenties. That means they sometimes use only half as much energy as the old systems they replace.
If you have any questions about the efficient air conditioning options available for your Hampton Roads, Peninsula or Southside home, contact us at Russell's Heating and Cooling. We'll be happy to help.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
Russell’s Heating & Cooling services the Chesapeake, Virginia and the surrounding areas. To get started, check out our website.