I remember looking through Sears catalogs and others showing whole house air conditioning units and prices. All I see now is estimates. I was thinking about whole air conditioning, but what a rip off when you can buy a 25K BTU window for $500, Where a similar whole house unit costs in the thousands. I really think I am going to buy a window unit and connect it to my new furnace when I buy that. Seriously. And the new laws make it even more expensive, trying to get better efficiencies mandatory, yet you can still buy those window units.
snipped-for-privacy@pitt.edu (GregS) wrote in news:e7hkak$5i5$ snipped-for-privacy@usenet01.srv.cis.pitt.edu:
At one time you could buy the central system and install it yourself, because the lines were pre-charged.
A window unit works best using gravity by putting it in a window in a room upstairs and of course leaving the door open!
In my present house that is a long ranch, I run an air conditioner in a room at one end of the house and leave the doors open, room to room. It's surprising how well the air travels from one end to the other. Sometimes I run an air conditioner at both ends of the house. The main idea is to dry the air anyway. You should be carefull not to put an air conditioner BTU rated for more than the room square feet calls for, because when the door is closed, it will be drafty.
Those window units are rather low efficiency, usually around 8 EER. If you're a serious DIY, have a look at
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and keep an eye out on ebay. I installed a 3 ton (36K BTU) 14 SEER heat pump along with a new furnace for about $1600 including a few special tools I had to buy. Even if you buy all new equipment, you should be able to manage central AC for under $1500 assuming your furnace is ok.
It really is a rip to have a contractor install it, sure they've gotta put food on the table but they normally buy the equipment wholesale, double the price, then charge $100+/hr for labor on top of that.
You do have to make *really* good soldered joints on the pipes though. Most pros braze them but that requires a source of dry nitrogen and it can harden the copper. I use good silver solder and a special water based flux. For a vacuum pump I got a surplus window AC compressor from usamfg for about 8 bucks and soldered a fitting to it. Most systems come pre-charged with enough refrigerant for 15-25' of line but you can easily get certified online to purchase more. It is not trivial to put one in but I had a lot of fun, learned a lot and saved a bundle in the process. I've put in two systems now and was very satisfied with the results.
Look for something that's at least 12 BTU/W efficiency, with the price of energy going up, any money you save with a lower efficiency unit you'll spend later on power.
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