So, you’ve just experienced one of the most sweltering and sticky summers of your life thus far, and you’re determined that you’ll never put yourself through such an ordeal again. Maybe you’re almost ready to have a central air conditioner installed in your home, but you aren’t quite convinced that it’s the most effective way to stay cool when the weather gets hot. You might also be worried about the potential expenses of having central air in your building. There are valid reasons for feeling the way you do: after all, other cooling methods exist, and central air does have the potential to be quite costly. However, there are several significant advantages of central air conditioning systems that almost always make them worth the investment. As long as you take care of central air conditioning systems correctly, they remain some of the best ways to cool your home by a wide margin. Here’s why:
- Better Air Quality in Your Home
You might think that using a couple of room air conditioners in strategic places around your house is just as good as central air, and likely to be a lot cheaper. However, room air conditioners lack a key benefit of central air conditioners: they don’t filter the air they’re cooling. Central air conditioners use the ductwork in your home to circulate filtered air throughout the building, raising the air quality significantly. Cleaner air comes with various health benefits for homeowners. It can help prevent respiratory ailments, improve your sleep quality, and lower your likelihood of being affected by allergies. Just make sure that you’re changing the filters in your air conditioner at least once a month.
- Less Mold
Having fresh air circulated throughout your home can do more than improving your health. It can also help keep your building healthy and structurally sound, by preventing the damp conditions in which mold flourishes. When you have central air conditioning, your home will be at lower risk from mold than it would be otherwise. Your building will be stronger, and you’ll be free from the health hazards that come with certain types of mildew.
- Combine Your Heating and Cooling Systems
People often think that the prospect of putting in a whole system of ductwork just for cooling seems like a little too much work—and they’d be right if that were the only purpose of ductwork. However, it’s important to remember that the “H” in HVAC stands for heating. Many systems come with both heating and air conditioning options so that you can enjoy total control over the climate in your home throughout the year.
- Save Overall Energy
It’s true that a central air conditioner might technically use more power than having one or two room air conditioners in the places you frequent most. However, if you want to be truly comfortable during periods of warm weather, you’ll need to make sure that you have air conditioning available in every part of your house. While one or two room air conditioners is certainly cheaper than installing a central system, having a separate room air conditioner in every single room certainly isn’t. Furthermore, it’s worth noting that central air conditioners tend to have much higher EER (Energy Efficiency Ratios) than window units, which means that a central air conditioner will save you money in the long run when compared to multiple window units. When you factor in how much more efficient a central heater is than a typical gas furnace, adding an HVAC to your home makes even more economic sense.
Keeping Your Advantages
Having an HVAC can make you more comfortable physically and financially, but you have to take care of it. It’s important that you make sure your system is always well-maintained, and that you have a professional service technician in at least once or twice a year to inspect it and diagnose problems. Many of the best HVAC service companies will offer service contracts that secure such work for an agreed annual fee. This is one of the most cost-effective ways to make sure you’re always dealing with problems before they threaten the efficiency and health of your central air conditioning system.
The Best Argument for Central Air
There are many good reasons to install a central air conditioning system in your home, but the best is also one of the simplest: there just aren’t that many other ways to keep cool effortlessly. Window air conditioners certainly work, but only for limited spaces—and the costs of putting one in every room are prohibitive. Other “solutions” are simply impractical—like keeping coolers full of cold drinks all over your home or taking cold showers every hour. Central air can help you stay cool, consolidate your utility costs, and save money overall. Remember to hire a qualified HVAC technician for your installation and maintenance, and you can look forward to better health, more convenience, and stable finances.
Valley Comfort provide central air conditioning systems installation and repair services in the following communities: Santa Rosa, Napa, Rohnert Park, Healdsburg, St Helena, Calistoga and Windsor