How Upgrading To A Ductless Air Conditioning System Improves Your Home's Energy Efficiency
Posted on: 3 May 2018
If you're trying to save on your monthly energy bill, consider upgrading your home to a ductless air conditioning system. A ductless air conditioner avoids energy loss experienced by both central air conditioners and window air conditioners. With a central air system that forces cool air through your ducts, you're wasting a lot of energy cooling the area around the ducts due to thermal transfer, which could be a crawlspace or a space between your walls that doesn't need to be conditioned. Window air conditioning units avoid this problem, but they leak cool air through gaps in the window, making them less efficient than ductless air conditioners Here's why ductless air conditioning systems are the most energy-efficient option.
Prevents Energy Loss Due to Poorly Insulated Air Ducts
Ductless air conditioning systems are more energy efficient than central air systems, saving you money on your energy bill. The reason why central air and heating systems have difficulty with energy efficiency is due to the ducts. Air ducts are made from thin sheet metal that is rarely insulated against outside temperatures – the sheet metal acts as a thermal conductor, allowing the warm air surrounding the duct to slightly heat the cool air blown through the duct by the air handler. This is especially true if you have any ductwork running through your attic, as attics and crawl spaces often have poor insulation and are easily warmed by hot weather outside. Unless your air ducts are insulated, your central air system expends energy cooling your attic, crawlspaces or the areas between your walls.
The conduits that connect your outside compressor unit to your indoor air handler units in a ductless air conditioning system don't carry cool air. Instead, they carry refrigerant and power from the compressor to the air handlers and carry condensate from the air handlers to the compressor to be drained into the drain pan. Since there's no cool air running through the conduits, there's no opportunity for the cool air to be warmed before it gets to the air handlers. This results in higher energy efficiency since the cool air is generated at the air handlers to cool your living space. You don't lose any cool air to attics or crawlspaces.
Allows You to Cool Only Specific Rooms in Your Home
If you have rooms in your house that you aren't using, you may be tempted to save on cooling costs by closing the air vents in those rooms. However, this places additional strain on your central air system. By closing off the flow of air, you increase the air pressure in your ducts. This causes your blower fan in your air handler unit to work harder to compensate for the higher pressure, which shortens the lifetime of your blower motor. You may save money on your energy bill, but you're damaging your air conditioner in the process. This is a poor trade, since replacing a damaged central air conditioner is very expensive.
Thankfully, ductless air conditioning provides a solution to homeowners who have rooms they don't need to keep cool. Since the cold air is generated at the indoor air handler, you can simply choose not to install an air handler in those rooms – you'll eliminate wasted energy from cooling a room that isn't used. Even if you do install an indoor air handler in the room, each air handler in a ductless heating system can be equipped with its own thermostat. This allows you to cool the room to a comfortable temperature when you need to use it while also enabling you to turn the air handler off and save on energy when you don't need the room.
A ductless air conditioning system features better energy efficiency than both central air systems with uninsulated ducts and window air conditioners. The only downside to installing a ductless air conditioning in your home is the up-front cost – it's more expensive than installing window air conditioners or installing a new central air conditioning unit, but less expensive than installing central air and heating in a home that doesn't already have air ducts. You will recoup some of these costs with your reduced energy bill, especially if you're only using your new ductless air conditioning unit to cool only a few rooms. To discuss your options, contact an air conditioning installation company like A-Thompson Refrigeration Air Conditioning & Heating Service Inc for a cost and energy savings estimate and discover which option will be right for your home.
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