Summer is here, which means for many of us, thoughts are turning to air conditioning. Let’s face it—central air conditioning will change your life. No more sweaty nights tossing and turning because you haven’t installed the window units yet. For that matter, no more installing the window units—or bashing your knuckles carrying them up and down the basement stairs each spring and fall. If you’re thinking about upgrading to central air, be prepared to spend between $6,000 and $15,000, depending on the size and complexity of the job. Installation usually takes several days, and the new system will increase your property value by as much as 10%, according to Twin Cities appraiser Alan Hummel. Here’s what else you need to know. Air conditioning is measured by the ton, which is the cooling energy released by a one-ton block of ice melting over the course of a day. You’ll pay about $2,000 to $4,000 per ton, and a typical two-story, 2,000-square-foot house might require 3 to 3.5 tons of air conditioning—but getting the tonnage exactly right is essential.

An oversized system will cool the house so quickly it doesn’t effectively dehumidify the air (a major key to comfort), and if it’s too small it will run almost constantly, increasing your energy bills and prematurely wearing out the equipment. The contractor should show you a printout of a heat-load calculation for your house, which factors in such things as your home’s location, cubic feet of living space, number and size of windows, and orientation to the sun. In general, today’s systems must be 14 SEER—which stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio and is a measure of how much cooling you get for each watt of power used—or about 40% more efficient than the 10 SEER standard that was in place until 2006. Given that your old system isn’t running at peak efficiency anymore, your cooling bills should drop by about half. Or you can opt for even higher efficiency, all the way up to 24 SEER. A 16 SEER system, for example, might add about $2,000 in upfront costs—or perhaps just $500 if your state offers an energy incentive program (you can find a list here)—and will reduce your cooling costs by another 14% a year.

If you have an old central air system or forced air heat, your contractor can connect new AC equipment to the ducts that already exist inside the walls and floors of your home. Old ducts aren’t necessarily good ducts, however. If they’re leaky, you could lose 20% of your cooled (and heated) air into your attic and basement, says physicist Max Sherman, of the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory. So have the ducts checked, and if necessary sealed. That will add another $1,000 to $3,000 to your costs. If you don’t have ducts, or the old ones are super inefficient, you have two choices: A contractor can install new ducts in the attic and or basement—and run between-floor connections through closets—for the cost of about $4,000 to $5,000. Or you can opt for ductless air conditioning: Unlike central air conditioning, which has one or two central blower units (usually in the attic) that push air through ducts, these systems have individual blower units that usually get installed on the house’s perimeter walls.

You need one unit for each conditioned space, and therefore you have multiple zones throughout your house that can be more efficient than the all-or-nothing approach you get with central air conditioning. Not everyone likes the look of the blower units hanging on the walls, however, and ductless equipment will cost about 30% more for the system than for connecting new central air to existing ductwork.air conditioning unit central price Do not install central air conditioning without adding a high-efficiency filter to the system. 4 ton ac unitsBy cleaning the air as it moves through the system, it will reduce pollen and dust in the air inside your house—and it will help keep the inner workings of your AC equipment clean and efficient. why put ac unit on roof

A system with a “media filter” with a MERV (minimum efficiency reporting value) rating of 12 will add $500 to $1,000 to installation costs but reduce your maintenance costs by about $500 every two years, says Wes Davis, of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, a trade organization. Like shopping for a flat-screen TV the week after the Super Bowl or a 2015 model year car after the 2016s hit the lot, timing your air conditioning purchase right can save you big. “In the spring and summer, our phones are ringing off the hook,” says Robert Wilkos, of Roussos Air Conditioning in Panama City, Fla. In the winter, contractors are trying to find enough work to keep their crews busy, he says, so they typically knock 10% to 20% off their bids. Farther north, fall and spring offer similar off-season pricing and milder weather for doing the installation.Get ET Markets in your own languageDOWNLOAD THE APP NOWCHOOSE LANGUAGEENGENG - EnglishHIN - HindiGUJ - GujaratiMAR - MarathiBEN - BengaliKAN - KannadaORI - OriyaTEL - TeluguTAM - Tamil

Online Tonnage calculator helps you to determine the AC tonnage required for a particular room. Wall thickness - 9 inch, Colling thickness - 6 inch, Room height - 10ft or less, Indoor Temperature - 24~25 deb. Col, 2 Persons, 01 TV & 01 computer in room, room should be single & air tight, curtain on glass window, installation by LG authorised person, This is only for general guidance and is not a rule book. Random samples taken for testing. Outside ambience like location near sea, drains, installation in shaft, air moisture level have not been considered.People in the Sarasota, Florida area need their air conditioners working almost year round to escape the overly humid heat. People in the Sarasota, Florida area need their air conditioners working almost year round to escape the overly humid heat. That’s why many of them have so many questions about Freon, the lifeblood of an air conditioner’s cooling system.Here are the most common questions we hear about Freon and our answers to them.

Here are telltale signs that your air conditioner is low on Freon:Of course, the only way to know for sure whether your AC needs more refrigerant is to test it. But you likely don’t have specialty air conditioning gauges just lying around your house. A trusted air conditioning company like Cool Today will make sure your system has the right level of Freon during a routine AC tune-up.Needing to add Freon to your air conditioner should be rare. Freon isn’t like gas in a car; Freon is not consumed when you use your air conditioner.So, if you need to add refrigerant to your air conditioner, it’s leaking the Freon somewhere. And if it’s leaking, then you need aprofessional air conditioner contractor to check for leaks and fix those before adding more Freon.Most maintenance plans offered by air conditioner contractors include an annual check-up that includes checking your system for leaks.This depends on a variety of factors:On average, Freon costs $60-$85 a pound. Freon costs so much because it contains ozone-depleting substances and is therefore being phased out by the EPA.