Don't let the initial low cost of an off-the-shelf window-sized air conditioner fool you. Before long, you'll be paying far more for that cool air than you would with an alternative such as geothermal. That back bedroom is just too hot! Maybe “they” didn't run a big enough duct, or you’ve never had AC there.Window-sized air conditioners may seem like a good deal, but they're woefully poor users of energy.It doesn’t matter if you’re in a four room apartment or a single family home, the weather outside is hot. The first stop for most people is the home improvement store, Amazon, or whatever else is available in a moment of desperation. We purchase a $200 window or "through-the-wall" air-conditioning unit, and pay tremendously high energy bills for a woefully inefficient product. Let's look at some of the real and intangible factors with regard to the cost of installing a window air conditioner, some of which may not have come to mind. A through-the-wall air conditioner is typically chosen in response to the following question: “What is the largest number of BTUs I can get for the least expense?”

Here a short list of things that may be wrong with this line of thinking: The window AC is likely either oversized or undersized for the space, each of which wastes energy A through-the-wall air conditioner is likely rated for an EER (energy efficiency rating) of 10. The #1 bestselling window AC on Amazon is a Frigidaire FRA052XT7 5,000-BTU Mini Window Air Conditioner, with a 9.7 EER. best ac units centralThe cost is $119.73.  best air handling unitsAs I stated earlier, we buy “cheap” in a pinch; cost of external ac unitNot really …there’s more… If you’re shopping for high efficiency window units, the next best option is the Friedrich SQ05N10B 5,200 BTU - ENERGY STAR - 115 volt - 11.2 EER. Still, a long way to go to measure up to the minimum standards of 13 SEER for home air conditioners, and they’re getting pricey at $578.94 on Amazon.

Installation rarely works out the way instruction show, and the finished product is typically considered, even by the installer/homeowner as "poor at best".  This results in increased thermal gains due to infiltration of air, solar gains, and other losses in efficiency. The install may even be a safety hazard. One report in 2011 states that Poorly Installed AC Units Cost New York City $180 Million in Fuel Consumption each year and the New York Times reported in a similar article that it was found that the average gap size for an AC unit was about the size of a fist, and “The cost of fuel lost to such energy waste is equal to the total cost of cooling the building alone…”. I have visited many homes and businesses over the last 30 years in which they've installed a window air conditioner(s) and complained of increases in energy expenditures of $50-$200 per month. Many of these homes could be completely conditioned with geothermal HVAC systems for fraction of that kind of energy cost.

Beyond all of this, first cost is so low for the installation of window air conditioning units that it has become epidemic in many areas, even being used in office buildings and residential apartments. Now, let’s continue the list of adverse results from these unsightly pimples, commonly called window air-conditioners.  Window air-conditioners can result in: Proportionally high CO2 emissions Increased noise pollution proportional to the number of window ACs in a building Increased safety risks and equipment hazards on ground level (and even upper level) installations A greater security risk (often because of poor installation) Below is a chart depicting energy consumption of the typical 1500 ft.² house using window air-conditioners (10 SEER), and conversely using a geothermal HVAC system (20 to 40 EER). To be fair, it's not uncommon for a home that uses only through-the-wall air-conditioning to use less energy per square foot than a home that uses central air-conditioning.

This has to do with energy habits. We've all been in homes where the occupants only air-condition the living room during the day and then just the bedroom at night. This is a good energy habit, and can also be effectively applied with HVAC (ducted) systems using zoning (a well installed duct system with automatic dampers to cool and heat only the rooms occupied). Much like energy efficiency in vehicles, we often feel we can't afford the costs associated with high efficiency products, when in reality the economics show a much different picture. It’s hot out there. Take a moment and “look before you leap”.  Grab a cool drink and consider the resources available.  You’ll make the right decision when you “Think Green”. Geothermal Cooling and Heating; Sharing Energy with Mother Earth Jay Egg is a geothermal consultant, writer, and the owner of EggGeothermal. He has co-authored two textbooks on geothermal HVAC systems published by McGraw-Hill Professional.

© 2016, Green Builder Media. This article is the exclusive property of Green Builder Media. If you would like to reprint this content, you are free to extract a short excerpt (no more than 1/4th of the total article), as long as you 1. credit the author, and 2. include a live link back to the original post on our site. Please contact a member of our editorial staff if you need more information. From keeping the freezer door open while you pick your ice cream to leaving the lights on, let’s face it, we all have bad energy habits – ClearlyEnergy has field-tested the impact of seven of the most common ways we waste electricity, and discovered which ones matter to your wallet. Read on to find out what habits are worth trying to shake. We all have bad energy habits, from hanging out in front of the open freezer door letting all the cold out, to falling asleep in front of the TV, to the classic leaving the lights on all day when nobody’s in the house…but since appliances and gadgets all use different amounts of electricity, it’s tough to say which habits we should feel guilty about and which really don’t affect our wallet.

So we collected seven of our own pet peeves and field tested them using an in-home electricity monitor.. Here’s what we found*: 1. The old favorite leaving the lights on depends on what kind of light you’re leaving on – and, obviously, how many. A “normal” incandescent bulb costs about 0.75cents per hour, and LEDs or CFLs cost only one-sixth of that – so leaving the lights on (either overnight or while you’re at work for the day, say both are about 8 hours) costs you roughly 6 cents for a normal light and a bit over 1 cent for modern bulbs. Obviously this isn’t going to break the bank 2. Falling asleep with the TV on is another classic: it’s so cozy on the couch…before you know it, it’s 3 a.m. and your TV has been broadcasting to no-one for 4 hours. It turns out that doesn’t cost you too much, thanks to modern TVs: current EnergyStar models use only 30-60Watts for a 40" TV, so those 4 hours asleep cost you about 2 cents.If you have an old TV, however, it can consume as much as 400W - in that case your nap costs you about 15c.

Again, it matters how often your bad habit happens: if falling asleep in front of your TV is your nightly ritual, it pays to get a new energy-efficient TV because you’ve been wasting $55 per year. 3. Like to clean? If you are so eager to get dust-busting that you start vacuuming before moving the furniture, and then leave the vacuum running while you shove the couch away from the wall or remove the dining room chairs, you are wasting lots of power – right? Turns out despite their loud noise, vacuums only use about 1200 Watts – so spending 5 minutes moving furniture while the thing sucks air in the corner only costs you about an extra penny. That’s not a lot to pay for an extra-clean house. 4. How about this one: standing in front of the open fridge or freezer trying to figure out what to eat? Our home energy monitor showed us that leaving the freezer open for 2 minutes wastes about as much as leaving the fridge open for 4 minutes. The former is about enough time to pick an ice cream flavor and scoop it, while the latter is the time it takes to figure out which sandwich ingredients to use while the bread is toasting and to put everything back.

But it turns out, it’s a habit that isn’t costing us too much: the door open situations drew about as much as leaving two CFL's on for an hour or so. If you repeat your bad habit once a day for a year, it only costs $1.50. However, leaving the fridge door inadvertently open a crack means the appliance is working overtime for hours. So instead of kicking yourself for having left the door open, make sure you really close it tight! 5. We all know that it doesn’t waste much power to leave our cell phones plugged in after they’re done charging…but shouldn’t we try to unplug stuff to avoid the famous “phantom load” adding extra bucks to our energy bills? It turns out once gadgets are done charging, they suck only a miniscule amount of juice – one professor even tested how much exactly, using 4 laptops, 2 cell phones, 2 iPads, a Nook, a Nexus, and an iPod. When all of these were fully charged but still connected to their chargers in sleep mode, they collectively used only 8 Watts – less than half an energy efficient light bulb!

So even if you had every one of these appliances charging in vain 8 hours a day every day for a year, it would amount to roughly $2.50. A lot of folks pay more for their morning coffee. 6. After finding out that all those bad habits actually don’t waste a lot of power, we came across one that really does cost more than you think: an old stereo (the kind you typically have in your living room) uses a whopping 70 Watts in standby mode, which is what people normally leave it in for weeks at a time! All of us at ClearlyEnergy have some type of older stereo equipment at home that we didn’t realize is a silent sucker of electricity when not playing music – leaving those in standby all day can cost $67 per year. We all went home and turned ours off! 7. And now for the bad habit that really makes a difference: leaving the air conditioning on! Whether you have a central system or a window unit, air conditioners are powered solely by electricity – and they use lots of it. Leaving central the a/c on while nobody’s home (for instance the 8 hours you’re at work) can add up to a couple hundred dollars per season, depending on how hot and long your summers are.