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Anyone know of some good resources to get rough estimates for central air vs. window units? We have a 50yr old house with oil-fired baseboard hot water (no ductwork). The house was recently insulated, and replaced all of the windows (so hopefully no real leak issues). We have a couple of window units, but would need a few more now that my wife and 7-month old are home full time.
We'd either need to buy 3 new window units and have new dedicated circuits run to them, or we can go the central air route. The 2 units on the main floor would need to run all day, plus 1 window unit for my wife's office and 1 window unit for my son's bedroom. So that's 4 units for most of the day. Plus, we'd run 2 at night. Or, we could get 2 zone central air.
Any suggestions on install cost vs. ongoing costs of electric / usage / maintenance?
Initial cost for Central Air in a existing residents would be quite a bit higher, probably 10-20k. If the house is 2 stories I wouldn't even suggest it, labor alone could be insane.
In the long run, you probably would end up saving money, and the whole house would feel much cooler overall as well as making the air in the home a lot dryer.
toddb - hard to name a price without looking at the job. You will actually save money doing central A/C because the 220v window units will have to work harder to cool the "rooms".
I got a 1 level ranch house just renovated. It had oil fired water baseboards like yours. Here's what I had them do::
* Rip out all the baseboards.
* Install a Hydro-Air unit in basement (boilers heats up water, water pushes into hydro-air unit, coils heat up, air blows out.
* A 15SEER Energy Star condensor outside
* 9 vents on main level
* 2 vents in basement
* All ducts ran in ceiling of basement (which was open)
* 2 Zone with 2 thermostats
Total cost = about $11,000. I ran the low voltage and the electric and did hookups. Had a contractor hire the A/C guys.
It was the best investment I ever made. My electric bill is about $100 a month for a 2100 sq ft home. Use less oil obviously then the baseboards.
2000 square foot home, 2 story, no ductwork, central air install estimate $12,000 (about 2 years ago). 3 window units for us ran about $500. Don't get me wrong, i would love to have central air and its one of the "must haves" in our next home, but it wasn't a justifiable cost for our current home. We have better spent money on the kitchen, bathrooms, landscaping, etc....I would say if you plan to stay in your current home forever, then I would spend the money. If not, just get a few window units for the few months you will actually need them.
Thanks for the advice! Some detail I left - 2200 sq ft, 2 stories. Oh, and my wife doesn't want to lose a chunk of the closets, so we'd want to have some of the equipment separated - cool the 2nd floor with ducts from the attic, and the 1st floor with ducts from the basement. I don't necessarily need the heating element - just cooling.
We're hoping to stay for a long time, but with this economy and the cost of living up here, we might be forced to leave the NE... but thats a whole separate story.
Seems like the best option would be to pick up a few window units, see how the summer turns out with costs, and if we're still around next year then maybe look into it then.
From what I have heard from others recently, the prices quoted are correct. I would though suggest you consider going with central air. It is an investment in your home and does not take up window space and block sunlight like those window units do. I also would not rip out your old heating system though, just install a separate system. I am not sure why Nature27 did that. Baseboard heat is superior to any hot air system IMHO. Also note that there are newer A/C systems that use smaller ducts (pipes really) and do not need to take up closet space. I have seen these and they are pretty discrete. I just wish they had them when the original owners of my house installed our system a few years before we bought the house. Good luck, Jay
We didn't have to rip up baseboards. We use separate ducts in the ceiling. Granted, our house is a single-story ranch, circa 1961, so some of the AC equipment is in the attic, as are the ducts. We had it done about 11 years ago for about $5,000. It was one of the best investments we ever made.
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