Central air units are intended to function with your heat ports to provide cool air to every room in your home. Granted, you can switch off the registers to limit or halt the air from entering a space, but the central air unit will still be running at full power. Among the methods to work with a window unit, in this example, is to spot cool a room that’s occupied, but they can also save energy, be utilized for whole house cooling, as well as during emergency power outages.

Spot Cooling

A more compact air conditioner may adequately spot cool a space where folks congregate. Since even smaller central air conditioning units draw at least 15 amps or more of electricity, a window air conditioner which attracts less electricity, but can cool the space, is an effective alternative. There is not any reason to cool off the whole home when only 1 room is occupied. You can save on energy costs along with the wear and tear in your central air unit by using a window air conditioner in this example.

Saving Energy

Locate the amperage rating of your central air conditioner and then set up window units which are under that score. Cooling off the family room, the kitchen and a bedroom with three window units may save energy and also be more cost effective than turning on the central atmosphere, provided the entire amperage of this window units are rated less than the amperage on the central air unit. For example, window unit for a bedroom which uses 5,000 British thermal units is usually rated at 5 amps. An 8,000 BTU unit for the kitchen and the family room are rated at 7 amps each or 14 amps total. If the amperage draw in your own central unit is 20 amps or greater, you save energy by employing three window units instead.

Whole House

Strategically place one or two window air conditioners around your house and use fans to circulate the air. The largest home box fans use less than an amp of electricity, so if a single 8,000 BTU window air unit is placed in the kitchen and one is set in the living space, you’re employing 14 amps. Insert in a few fans to blow air into bedrooms, and you’ve got a entire maximum amperage consumption of 17 amps. Running the fans on low increases their efficacy. This works because air blowing your skin makes you feel cooler in any temperature. This is the same principle of a wind chill index.

Power Outage

Power up a window air conditioner with an electrical generator during a warm-weather electricity outage. Unless you’ve got a whole-house generator, then your central air conditioner won’t be usable during a power outage. But smaller 5,000 BTU window units can be powered with house generators which can handle the amperage. If there’s an emergency power outage in a heat wave, then being able to force a smaller space window air conditioner off of a generator may be a lifesaver.

See related