Heating and Air: Shopping for a System
If you're putting a heating and air system into your home, you'll soon be confronted with the fact that there are a lot of choices to make. While few would decry the chance to have multiple options, it can get overwhelming when you don't really know what you're looking for.
Choosing a heating and air system for your home can be a challenge. Manufacturers tour such a wide array of features that it can be difficult to separate the ones you need from the ones that don't mean much of anything. If you're beginning to pull your hair out while browsing through the selections,
here are some tips that will help you decide.
One of the most important things you need to know when looking for a heating and air conditioning system is the square footage of your home. HVAC systems are built for different criteria, and one of the main ones is how large of a space they'll be heating and cooling. It doesn't make sense to buy one of the extreme powerhouses to work inside a very small house and it will be endlessly frustrating to buy one that can't get the job done. Another important consideration, if you're replacing an existing system, is how much the current unit weighs. This will help you directly shop for one of similar tonnage.
The SEER and AFUE ratings of a heating and air conditioning unit are also important numbers with which you can compare various systems. These ratings are used to tell the consumer about the energy efficiency of the system. Energy efficiency is an important concept, because it will give you an idea of how much this is going to cost you when your monthly electric bill comes around. Ideally, you want a system that is going to get the job done using the least amount of energy as possible. The SEER rating looks at how effectively the system converts electricity into the power to cool your home. The AFUE rating is similar, but for heat.
Decide which additional features you would like to have with your unit. If you aren't sure what a term means, take the time to research it before you start shopping in earnest. The labels on the sides of these machines are designed to draw consumers in and dazzle them with a bunch of numbers and concepts that may not make that much of a difference. If you know what each term means, you'll be that much less likely to buy a system because of some feature that you would have never missed.
