Things To Look Out For When Replacing Part Of a Matched A/C System
Split air conditioners have an outdoor unit and an indoor unit. The outdoor unit is on an outside wall near the space to be cooled and houses the compressor and the condenser and expansion coils. The indoor unit contains a cooling coil, blower and air filter.
Sometimes – it may be through storm damage or for some other reason – one part of the system needs to be replaced and the other does not. If the cause is storm damage, the outside unit is most often the one in question. When you buy a new one, you know that at some point the inside unit is also going to need replacement so there’s an incentive to get the cheapest on the market. We do understand that. It isn’t always as simple, though, as just paying a contractor to slap up a nice low-cost unit.
SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) measures the efficiency of central air conditioners. Since 2006, the minimum SEER for new A/C units and heat pumps is 13. Any air conditioner made before 2006 may well have a SEER of less than 13. Why that matters is that putting together outdoor and indoor units with different SEER ratings will reduce efficiency and can actually damage the units, causing early failure.
There’s also the question of the kind of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant used. New systems generally use a non-ozone depleting HFC; older units typically don’t. Once again, using units that don’t match will cause early failure.
The solution? Get expert advice. We want you to save money as much as you do, but installing something that will die on you far earlier than it should (and probably won’t give anything like the cooling performance you’d like in the meantime) isn’t really saving money, except in the shortest term. All our technicians are NATE certified. They know what they’re talking about; they know what they’re doing; they’ll give you the information and advice you need and they’ll give it to you straight.
If you have any concerns at all, call us. That’s why we’re here
