There’s more to choosing the right air conditioning system for your home than meets the eye. For example, biggest isn’t always best, while a budget system could end up costing you much more in the long run.

The first element that needs to be assessed is the size of your home. This is critical if you want to ensure you get the best AC unit to meet your needs. Why? Because AC units are individually designed to keep a maximum space cool. In other words, you can buy an air conditioning system designed for cooling a one-bedroom apartment, and you can also buy an AC unit designed to keep a five-bedroom family home cool.

Size also matters when it comes to the running costs of your AC unit, and also the initial outlay. If you buy an air conditioning unit that is too small for the space you want kept cool, two things will happen. First, the unit will likely need to be in constant operation, which will skyrocket your energy bill. Second, if overworked, your AC unit will likely break down or wear out long before it would if used for the correct space. However, veering on the side of caution can also be a mistake. Buying an AC unit that is too powerful for your home means you will have wasted money with your initial outlay when you could have and should have bought a smaller unit. Secondly, larger units, logically, cost more money to run – so why pay to run a unit that is underutilized?

So, let’s have a look at the four main types of system and where they are most commonly found.

1. Portable units – These are great if you live in a studio apartment or only want to keep one room cool, though they tend not to work effectively in large rooms. They are, typically, quite expensive to run, and some may still require the room to have a window for a hose duct.
2. A central air system – these are the most common and most efficient AC systems found in medium- and large-size homes. They require one centralized AC unit and the cool air is then distributed throughout the home via a system of air ducts – usually the same ones that are used for distributing warm air throughout your home in the winter.
3. Ductless air conditioning – these do not require any ducting, but you may need more than one unit depending on the size of your home. These can be extremely powerful, but the more powerful they are the bigger the unit, and they are not the most attractive of features in any room. Ductless AC units are also called mini-split AC systems and comprise an indoor wall-mounted unit that blows in cold air while also extracting warm air. On the outside there is an air compressor that is responsible for cooling the warm air that is extracted from the property and blowing it back through the internal wall-mounted unit.

You will also see that all air conditioning units have a rating, which immediately tells you what area or volume of a room they can keep cool. As a general rule of thumb, for a home with average height ceilings, you can calculate the power needed for your AC unit by using the formula 1.5kw of power per 10 square meters of space (1,000 square feet of space). So, a room of 45 square meters will need a 6-7kw AC unit.

If you feel your current air conditioning system isn’t achieving what you want, isn’t running efficiently, or if you are thinking of installing or replacing an AC system, why not give us a call here at A&E Air Conditioning and Heating. We’d be delighted to come out and provide you with the benefit of our many years of experience working with AC units so we can advise you of your best options, and we don’t charge for such a visit either!