Things to Consider When Buying an Air-Conditioner

In the heat of summer, one cannot but look for the refreshing breeze of an air-conditioner. With the summer temperatures getting worse by the year, it is hardly surprising to find that these home appliances are more popular than ever.

When shopping for an air-conditioner, there are a number of things you need to pay attention to. This article briefly breaks each of these down into easily digestible tips. Hopefully, these will help you choose the one that best fits your needs.

Getting the Right Power Level

Before you start looking at the price and features of the different models, you will first need to have an idea regarding the size and power of your unit. This is vital as you would not want to get this one wrong. Keep in mind that the size of the unit is affected by factors like the size of the room you wish to cool and its location.

Typical window air conditioners have cooling capacities that can range from 5,000 to 12,500 British thermal units (Btu). To give you a better idea of how it works, remember the very basic rule: for every square foot of living space, you will need 20 Btu to effectively cool it.

Of course, this is not set in stone as the cooling ability of your unit is also affected by other factors. The unit location, the height of your ceiling as well as the size of the windows and doorways in your home are just a few examples of these.

To give you a better idea, let us look at a number of different scenarios. If you plan to put the unit in the kitchen, then you will need to add at least an additional 4,000 Btu to the unit capacity. Additionally, if you plan to place it in a room with more than two people, then you will need to add an additional 600 Btu for every additional person. Of course, it is also worth noting that you can reduce the unit capacity as needed. For instance, if the room you plan to put it in is heavily shaded then you can cut down the capacity by around 10 percent.

Getting the power level right is vital in more ways than one. Not only does it help you get a better idea of how much additional energy your unit will be consuming on a regular basis but it also helps you get a grasp of its optimal performance capacity.

Noise Level

Back in the day, air-conditioning units were pretty noisy. Now, most of the modern models feature some sort of noise reduction technology. This may seem insignificant for some people but light sleepers would tell you just how important this feature actually is. If you like your unit to be quiet, then you should definitely pay attention to their noise levels as indicated on the label.

This article presented a few things to pay attention to when shopping for an air-conditioning unit. Needless to say, it is vital that you keep these in mind.

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