Last updated on May 26th, 2024 at 01:09 am
While price is often the main factor when it comes to choosing the best air conditioner for your home, there are a few other considerations to think about before you make this all-important decision. Generally, the best choice of air conditioner for your home is one that fits within your budget while delivering on performance, efficiency, and reliability.

Many end users find themselves baffled when trying to differentiate between one manufacturer and another in the domestic air conditioning market, which offers numerous options. Some brands prioritize low costs, while others incorporate highly energy-efficient technologies into their designs, offsetting a higher initial investment with reduced running costs. Here are a few things to consider when choosing an air conditioner for your home.
LOW INITIAL COST.
Walk into any Builder’s Warehouse or Makro store, and there, between the heaters and dehumidifiers, you will see the latest range of air-conditioning systems at often reduced prices. Towards the front, you will usually find the more recognized brands that you will see on any billboard along the M5 highway, but if you look long enough, you will notice a few less-known options at strangely low prices. These are the systems that end users usually purchase at their local store and then commission a professional HVAC contracting company to come and install.
These systems work just fine, especially when a qualified HVAC technician installs them. If price is your only consideration, then these brands are the right fit for you. However, HVAC professionals seldom recommend these units for a few very specific reasons.
Firstly, if you look closely, you will immediately notice the difference in the materials used to manufacture them. They are often of a lower density and slightly inferior, which becomes problematic if you live in coastal areas. These units tend to wither more rapidly under trying weather conditions and, as such, have much shorter lifespans.
A CLOSER LOOK AT ENTRY LEVEL AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS
Under the hood, these systems also have, at their very heart, components that are of a lower engineering standard, and finding readily available components in case of breakdowns can be challenging, particularly when it comes to their electronics. Components like compressors and reverse valves are available off-the-shelf, but make-and-model-specific parts like printed circuit boards are often harder to source for these less popular brands.
Aesthetically these units also tend to be less pleasing to the eye than the more popular brands and very often don’t complement the interior design of some homes.
With a small budget, a low price point should be your primary consideration when deciding on your air conditioner of choice, and the shortened lifespan of the unit, lack of readily available spares, and less pleasing aesthetics probably don’t bother you as much as budgetary restrictions, but when the means allow for it, there are a few more factors we would like you to consider.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF MODERN AIR CONDITIONERS
There are 2 main expenses to consider when purchasing an air-conditioner. The initial cost of purchase and the running cost of operating the system. Modern systems incorporate technologies that allow them to run at very low energy consumption rates, and with manufacturers clearly communicating the EER or SEER ratings of these systems, it becomes easy to calculate the energy-saving potential of specific units when compared to one another.
EER stands for Energy Efficiency Ratio and it is used to calculate a system’s energy efficiency using a constant outdoor and indoor temperature.
SEER stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio and it is the most common way to measure a system’s energy efficiency.
In a recent study done to compare the energy-efficient inverter-type air-conditioning systems of identical capacities from two of the global leading brands it was found that the purchase price of System A was 15% higher than that of System B from its leading competitor. However, factoring in the energy efficiency of the two systems revealed that System B, which is more efficient, would neutralize the difference in purchase price within 18 months of operation through its energy savings. That fact, along with the impressive lifespan of these high-end units, means that System B would continue to put distance between itself and the less efficient System A when it comes to the lower cost of its operation.
Given this type of data, one can easily calculate the average annual cost of running a system over its expected lifespan. When formulating and analyzing the data, it becomes apparent that high-end systems have a lower operational cost per year than their “cheaper” counterparts.
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
With advances like WIFI and wind-free technologies being incorporated into modern systems, new smart systems have become very popular in the office. Your air conditioning system utilizes your phone’s location and a clever algorithm to deduce that you are on your way home from the office. It then switches itself on to adjust the climate in your home to a preset, desired condition controlled by artificial intelligence in real-time. These systems are very costly, and most consumers view them as overkill for something as simple as climate control.
Be that as it may, it still pretty impressive how far Willis Carrier’s invention has come, and how many options are available when it comes time to choose between purchase price and energy efficiency, as we look to purchase an air-conditioning system for the home. Whatever choice you make, just be sure to consult a HVAC professional so that they can help you make the best choice for your given application based on industry driven data.
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