How to buy good and cheap air conditioner?
May 7th, 2010 . by adminIf you are looking for cheap air conditioner it would be definitely a unit one that can be placed in the window or on the wall. Another option is a portable air conditioner, simply put on the floor. You are possibly not interested in central cooling system for your house as this one is much more expensive and demands a lot of installation work. The first two are reasonably priced depending on the manufacturer and features. How to find the balance between the price and quality?
Before answering this question one has to be aware what are the standard features of every air conditioner. The most important one is a cooling capacity that is expressed by the number ranging from 5,000 to 25,000 BTU (British Thermal Units). The higher the number – the more expensive the air conditioner that is able to maintain temperature of a bigger room. But there is absolutely no sense in buying a high performance unit for a small room, it’s a waste of money and we may even get too much of the cooling effect on the lowest settings of the unit with too high capacity. In fact, BTU number should match dimensions of the room or the area it is intended to be placed in.
Usually manufacturers give some estimates about how big room can be cooled with a specific model, but a very rough estimate says that for up to 2 people staying usually in the room:
100-150 square feet room would need 7,000 BTU air conditioner
150-250 square feet room would need 8,000 BTU
250-300 square feet room would need 10,000 BTU
300-400 square feet room would need 12,000 BTU
400-450 square feet room would need 13,000 BTU
500-700 square feet room would need 14,000 BTU
700-1000 square feet room would need 19,000 BTU
For each additional person add 600 BTU, for the sunny room add 10%, for the shaded room deduct 10%, if the room you need a/c is the kitchen, add 4,000 BTU.
Another important feature of air conditioner to consider is its efficiency expressed by EER number (Energy Efficiency Ratio) usually ranging from 8.2 to 10.5. The higher the EER number – the better and more expensive air conditioners are as their everyday costs of operation are smaller. So for frequent usage you save more when investing in more efficient air conditioner.
Good air conditioner should also have quite broad temperature range more than (20 degrees) that can be incremented by 1 or 2 degrees. This gives us better control and prevents electricity waste. The same with fan speed settings, the more settings available, the better, and better energy saving.
When it comes to energy saving it would be good when air conditioner features “sleep setting” or “energy saver” option, that means the cooling process is minimized at night time if necessary to lower operational costs.
We should also pay attention to the warranty period offered that should be minimum of 1 year. Even after that period something may go wrong and this depends also on you, the user. Air conditioner that is not serviced and cleaned regularly will lose about 5% of its efficiency every year and will need to have more costly repairs. Minimal maintenance would include cleaning and changing filters that would also benefit from cleaner air circulating in your room.
Having all that in mind you may try to choose air conditioner right for your needs and for your pocket. Consumer reviews are also worth considering to avoid other people mistakes. But generally well known brands are worth the money spent on their products.