Whether you are feeling too much heat during summers or you are losing your tolerance for heat as you get older, you might be tempted to replace your noisy, dripping window AC with quieter, energy efficient central air conditioners. Congrats! This is the best idea you could make to renew your home’s HVAC systems. However, some people hesitate to move forward with this by assuming that replacing the existing forced-air furnace ducts are be pricier and results are inefficient. For everyone, we would like to inform you that adding a central air system in Coral Springs to your property is easier and cheaper than you might think.
Affordable Air Conditioning Installation In Coral Springs:
If you are already having a forced-air heating system installed on your property, adding a central air system would cost around $3,500 – $4,000 for a property of about 2,000 square feet. As such, the process can be done by two local HVAC professionals in Coral Springs in about two or three days, with a little to no change in your duct lines.
If your property is devoid of ductworks, the costs and the workload will increase. However, the reliable HVAC contractors like CORAL SPRINGS PRIDE AC can retrofit to hide the ductworks behind your walls, to the back of your closets, or up in the attic, thereby, requiring minimal cuts, with only a little mess.
Choosing The Air Conditioning Unit:
The first and foremost step in carrying out an AC installation in Coral Springs is to select the right unit. Let’s see the whole process in detail here:
Heat-gain Calculation:
All the HVAC contractors will begin their assessment of your property by doing a heat-gain calculation called “Manual J load” by Air Conditioning Contractors of America. This will give an idea of how much heat gain your home receives. This relatively easy method will tell you what size AC unit is required to your home. Yes, of course, the heat gain will strongly depend upon your geographical location, but, there are also other factors to take into account. They are:
Determining the Size Of Your Coral Springs Air Conditioning Unit
By using the above calculation, your local HVAC contractor will suggest the size of the AC unit to be installed, usually expressed in tonnage or BTU/hour. For the beginners, we would like to inform that one ton is equal to 12,000 BTU/hour.
So, are you wondering why sizing is so important when it comes to AC installation in Coral Springs? Well, the unit, which is undersized, will not be able to cool your rooms properly, especially during the hot summer days. Also, it would cost more on your electricity bills because they run longer than the properly-sized ones. On the other hand, the unit, which is oversized, will also take up more on utility bills simply because it takes more electricity to run the bigger units. At the same time, the oversized units will not decrease the humidity levels effectively. Therefore, determining the proper size is crucial.
The Efficiency of the AC Unit:
Once you have finalized the size of the AC unit, you must turn to another factor called “Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating”, otherwise called as the SEER. This rating will tell you how many BTU your AC will remove for every watt of power it takes up. The greater the SEER, the more efficient it will be. According to the federal regulations, all the new AC units should have a SEER of 13 and above. Thus, a new unit will gift you with low operating costs, high quality, better safety, better noise control, and low power consumption. However, you should also remember the fact that the greater the SEER, the higher the price of the unit.
Type of the AC Unit:
Basically, there are two types of AC units:
Placement of the AC Unit:
The condensers will make noise, no matter how quiet it is. This makes it important for you to speak with your HVAC contractor to find the best location. Typically, it shouldn’t be near to your bedroom or home-office windows. Also, placing the condenser under a deck or fully covering it is also not recommended. However, you can hide that in the landscaping as long as it can freely rotate the air.
What if you don’t have ducts?
Don’t worry if you don’t have ducts. A majority of central AC units are split systems today. They will have condensers outside and the fan and coil inside, connected to each other via pipes running up outside of your home. These pipes can be made to look like the part of your home’s gutter and downspout system.
Supplying the Air:
Remember, the same furnace ducts that supply you with hot air during colder months can be utilized for air conditioning. For this, you should get your ducts examined by the HVAC professionals. Mostly, the ductwork would need modifications to house the larger volume of air produced by the AC unit. Ideally, the older systems with larger ducts would work best if subjected to retrofitting.
Required Modifications:
As the fan and coil units are clambered on to the attic in a majority of retrofit AC units, the main issue will be to install supply & return ducts to the ceiling registers in the rooms of first and second floors. As such, the ducts that would feed the second floor will run across the floor of the attic and will plunge down between joists, wherein they will be linked to ceiling registers. On the other hand, those that feed the first floor will run down through the closets of the second floor. As a first step to achieve these, you will need to have your contractor examine the property to design a plan for ducts.
The ducts that will run in the closets will take up less space as these are 12 X 6 or 10 X 8 inches. If your contractor suggests flex duct, you must try to avoid it because it won’t offer higher durability in the active closets.
Level of Mess:
You need not worry about the mess that can result from installing ducts. In most cases, the wall and the ceiling surfaces will remain untouched. However, you may need to cut holes in the first and second-floor ceilings to house the registers and the closet floors will have to be cut for housing the new ducts. However, all these holes will be small and the mess is little.
Bottom Line:
Thus, even if your home doesn’t have any ductwork, the AC installation steps are fairly straightforward if you involve local HVAC contractors in Coral Springs. Make them examine your property, determine the size and type of the system, have the ductworks done, and complete the AC installation easily. Thus, you can make your summers better!
Affordable Air Conditioning Installation In Coral Springs:
If you are already having a forced-air heating system installed on your property, adding a central air system would cost around $3,500 – $4,000 for a property of about 2,000 square feet. As such, the process can be done by two local HVAC professionals in Coral Springs in about two or three days, with a little to no change in your duct lines.
If your property is devoid of ductworks, the costs and the workload will increase. However, the reliable HVAC contractors like CORAL SPRINGS PRIDE AC can retrofit to hide the ductworks behind your walls, to the back of your closets, or up in the attic, thereby, requiring minimal cuts, with only a little mess.
Choosing The Air Conditioning Unit:
The first and foremost step in carrying out an AC installation in Coral Springs is to select the right unit. Let’s see the whole process in detail here:
Heat-gain Calculation:
All the HVAC contractors will begin their assessment of your property by doing a heat-gain calculation called “Manual J load” by Air Conditioning Contractors of America. This will give an idea of how much heat gain your home receives. This relatively easy method will tell you what size AC unit is required to your home. Yes, of course, the heat gain will strongly depend upon your geographical location, but, there are also other factors to take into account. They are:
- Amount of wall/attic insulation
- Types/placement of windows and doors
- The orientation of your property to the sun
Determining the Size Of Your Coral Springs Air Conditioning Unit
By using the above calculation, your local HVAC contractor will suggest the size of the AC unit to be installed, usually expressed in tonnage or BTU/hour. For the beginners, we would like to inform that one ton is equal to 12,000 BTU/hour.
So, are you wondering why sizing is so important when it comes to AC installation in Coral Springs? Well, the unit, which is undersized, will not be able to cool your rooms properly, especially during the hot summer days. Also, it would cost more on your electricity bills because they run longer than the properly-sized ones. On the other hand, the unit, which is oversized, will also take up more on utility bills simply because it takes more electricity to run the bigger units. At the same time, the oversized units will not decrease the humidity levels effectively. Therefore, determining the proper size is crucial.
The Efficiency of the AC Unit:
Once you have finalized the size of the AC unit, you must turn to another factor called “Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating”, otherwise called as the SEER. This rating will tell you how many BTU your AC will remove for every watt of power it takes up. The greater the SEER, the more efficient it will be. According to the federal regulations, all the new AC units should have a SEER of 13 and above. Thus, a new unit will gift you with low operating costs, high quality, better safety, better noise control, and low power consumption. However, you should also remember the fact that the greater the SEER, the higher the price of the unit.
Type of the AC Unit:
Basically, there are two types of AC units:
- Package system: This will gang the condenser and cool the refrigerant and exhaust warm air. This will cool and blow the air. Herein, the ducting will connect directly to the AC unit. This is essentially a bigger wall mount unit with ducts. Another type is fan and coil system mounted on the attic floor. This will use refrigerant piped in from the condenser for cooling the air. Then the fan will blow it via ductwork to the rooms.
- Split system: Herein, the condenser will be outside the house and the fan and coil system will be inside. They are linked to one another through pipes that are carrying refrigerant. If your home is bearing a forced-air furnace, the pipes of the refrigerant will be connected to the cooling system in the air handler of the furnace, going up to plenum. If this doesn’t work, your contractor will make a separate plenum for the purpose. On the other hand, if there is no air-forced system, the system will be placed in the attic, where it will release cold air via the ducts.
Placement of the AC Unit:
The condensers will make noise, no matter how quiet it is. This makes it important for you to speak with your HVAC contractor to find the best location. Typically, it shouldn’t be near to your bedroom or home-office windows. Also, placing the condenser under a deck or fully covering it is also not recommended. However, you can hide that in the landscaping as long as it can freely rotate the air.
What if you don’t have ducts?
Don’t worry if you don’t have ducts. A majority of central AC units are split systems today. They will have condensers outside and the fan and coil inside, connected to each other via pipes running up outside of your home. These pipes can be made to look like the part of your home’s gutter and downspout system.
Supplying the Air:
Remember, the same furnace ducts that supply you with hot air during colder months can be utilized for air conditioning. For this, you should get your ducts examined by the HVAC professionals. Mostly, the ductwork would need modifications to house the larger volume of air produced by the AC unit. Ideally, the older systems with larger ducts would work best if subjected to retrofitting.
Required Modifications:
- Upsizing of the furnace blower to transport the cool air needed to your house. The blower, which is undersized, won’t be able to transport sufficient air through the coils. Also, they can freeze up.
- Sealing of the ducts to improve efficiency. This has to be done by professionals only.
- Swapping off older supplies. This is required to enable a larger volume of air to pass through. New grilles can enhance the airflow by 15-25%.
As the fan and coil units are clambered on to the attic in a majority of retrofit AC units, the main issue will be to install supply & return ducts to the ceiling registers in the rooms of first and second floors. As such, the ducts that would feed the second floor will run across the floor of the attic and will plunge down between joists, wherein they will be linked to ceiling registers. On the other hand, those that feed the first floor will run down through the closets of the second floor. As a first step to achieve these, you will need to have your contractor examine the property to design a plan for ducts.
The ducts that will run in the closets will take up less space as these are 12 X 6 or 10 X 8 inches. If your contractor suggests flex duct, you must try to avoid it because it won’t offer higher durability in the active closets.
Level of Mess:
You need not worry about the mess that can result from installing ducts. In most cases, the wall and the ceiling surfaces will remain untouched. However, you may need to cut holes in the first and second-floor ceilings to house the registers and the closet floors will have to be cut for housing the new ducts. However, all these holes will be small and the mess is little.
Bottom Line:
Thus, even if your home doesn’t have any ductwork, the AC installation steps are fairly straightforward if you involve local HVAC contractors in Coral Springs. Make them examine your property, determine the size and type of the system, have the ductworks done, and complete the AC installation easily. Thus, you can make your summers better!